Departures
by Xiana Asuka
Summary: After the party, Atobe's airplane sets off to take everyone on an extended world tour. Unfortunately, they don't make it very far before disaster strikes. :Atobe's Gift:
1. Departures

Xiana: Happy late Atobe's birthday, everyone! This story is based mostly on the mini-movie thing, Atobe's Gift, so if you haven't seen it, you may want to watch it before reading, though it's not _entirely_ necessary... It's a good movie though. Lots of fanservice. Lots of Atobe. And a very ambiguous and completely absurd ending, which I am taking advantage of here. To that end, this story begins a few minutes before the movie ends, and will continue from there!

It might be important to listen to the song that goes along with each chapter. In this case, it is Departures! Sung by Aozu! This is the perfect song to go along with this chapter, because it's also the end of the movie!

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**Departures**

* * *

_Chapter 1: Departures_

* * *

"And though the night is coming to a close, dear friends, not one of you should even think of leaving."

The arrogant drawl, made slightly scratchy by the loudspeaker it echoed from, was music to the girls' ears. "Did you hear that, Sakuno-chan? Does he mean we can stay here, with Ryoma-sama and all the rest, forever?"

"It certainly sounds that way, Tomo-chan." After a brief second in which they confirmed that they weren't dreaming, Ryuuzaki Sakuno and Osokada Tomoka hugged each other, squealing loudly.

Some of the nearby guests looked as if they wanted to do the same, but refrained because they weren't familiar with their neighbors or had too much masculine pride to hug another teenage boy. Shiraishi Kuranosuke, one of the former, left to search for one of his teammates (He had heard Tooyama Kintarou yelling about his friend "Koshimae," so he was probably still close by) after coughing slightly nervously. Shishido Ryou, who was one of the latter, turned to his doubles partner, Ootori Choutarou and instead said, "Sure is nice of Atobe to do all this for us. Did you know Kabaji was that important to him?"

Whatever Choutarou had to say in response was drowned out by the roar of huge engines from somewhere far below them. Suddenly, the roof of the convention hall split to reveal a fishbowl-like dome towering over the room and the body of the largest airplane anyone had ever seen.

-

At the ballroom that served as his headquarters, Atobe Keigo smirked. "It seems everything's going according to plan. Even Ore-sama is impressed by how well the servants did this time. Heh. Regardless, I've heard that there's a grand festival being held down in Rio de Janeiro, and it seems to me that when we get there, we'll be just in time to continue celebrating your birthday, ne, Kabaji?"

"It's not my birthday," Kabaji Munehiro rumbled from his usual position beside Atobe.

Atobe turned to him in mock exasperation. "Can't you just-" He was cut off by a butler, who informed him that preparations had been completed and the aircraft was ready for take-off. Completely forgetting about his conversation with Kabaji, Atobe strode confidently over to the control panel and, after strapping himself in securely and waiting for his companions to do the same, pressed the large red button marked "Launch." He lounged comfortably in his chair as the main boosters fired up and the surrounding city block disappeared, replaced by a large runway.

-

The other tennis players and miscellaneous guests were not aware of these actions, and thus could not enjoy the liftoff as much as Atobe as they were _not_ securely restrained and consequentially slid all around the building as gravity and other properties of physics did their work. Kaidoh Kaoru was particularly unlucky, for after crashing through one of the many booths that had been set up to profit from the festivities, he was consequentially followed –and crushed- by Yanagisawa Shinya, Kurobane Harukaze, Amane Hikaru, and all 4 members of the popular J-Pop idol group, The Chocolates. The worst part about the situation was that "David" had joked, "I must be caramel filling because I'm surrounded by Chocolates," and the girls had started giggling. Bane, blushing fiercely, had aimed a kick at David… but missed and hit Kaidoh instead.

Others fared almost as badly, but some had little to complain about. For example, Kamio Akira was able to accidentally-on-purpose run into Tachibana An and then told her that the only way he could make up for it was to protect her from any others who lost their balance, which mainly consisted of him embracing her tightly while she attempted to get away without hurting his feelings. Momoshiro Takeshi used the commotion as an excuse to dive head-first into the buffet table, figuring he could explain his gluttony by claiming that, having already contaminating the food, he didn't want to let it go to waste. Marui Bunta had the same thought, and attempted to leap into the desserts, but miscalculated and landed on top of the previously-sleeping Akutagawa Jirou, who woke up right away but nearly passed out again from the sheer excitement of being jumped by his hero.

After the plane got off the ground and leveled out, most of the passengers made their way to the center of the vehicle in search of their friends and teammates, mostly so they could complain about being kidnapped so suddenly without much warning at all. They briefly noticed some lights glowing on the ground, but didn't pay much attention to them even though they might have been arranged in the form of an important message. Of course, they were far more concerned with the safety of themselves and others, and a well-known fact is that only _nerds_ have time to read.

After reading Atobe's message, Inui Sadaharu and Yanagi Renji grinned before opening their ever-present notebooks and scribbling furiously in them.

"There has been some good data to gather today, Sadaharu," Yanagi commented, turning to a fresh page in his book.

"Yes, Renji. Very good data indeed…" Inui's glasses glinted evilly as he finished a paragraph regarding Atobe's ability to play doubles.

The others didn't think that there was any good data to be found at all, as they had far more pressing concerns. "Ne, Yuushi! Isn't that Atobe annoying, taking us all away without so much as a warning?" Mukahi Gakuto shouted, catching sight of his doubles partner Oshitari Yuushi in the crowd. He jumped, flipped, and landed on Oshitari's shoulders. "Some guys from Saint Reindeer or whatever ran into me while we were taking off, so I'm all bruised up now!"

Oshitari, who was strangely used to it, didn't even flinch when Gakuto landed on him. "Indeed, I believe it caught us all by surprise. The name of that school is St. Rudolph. And I don't know what you want me to do about your injuries. Do you need me to kiss them and make them all better?" he asked dryly.

"Nooooo, I just wanted a little sympathy. What are you thinking? I'm pretty sure you're not my mother, Yuushi." Gakuto climbed off of Oshitari to stand in front of him, pouting.

"At times, it almost seems like I am, Gakuto. Now then, will you accompany me to Atobe's room so that our complaints might have more of a purpose?"

"A chance to annoy Atobe? Sure!" Oshitari offered Gakuto his arm, and the two strolled off in search of their captain.

-

At the top of the specially-built mountain that Atobe had created specifically for the physical challenge event, the entire Rokkaku team (minus David and Bane, who had struck up a conversation with The Chocolates and didn't plan on rejoining their teammates any time soon) was strapping on skis to slide down the mountain.

"Why are we doing this?" Itsuki Marehiko demanded for the 15th time, holding a ski pole nervously.

"So we can be the first people ever to ski down a flying mountain!" Aoi Kentarou, the excitable captain, yelled, pushing off in a flurry of snow.

The team watched him zip down the mountain, laughing at the foolish freshman when he wasn't able to turn in time and crashed into a mogul, landing headfirst in the snow and waving his legs wildly in the air.

"Even if you've never gone skiing before, it's probably best to just go along with it for the time being," Saeki Kojirou sighed, patting Itsuki sympathetically on the back before weaving his way expertly down the mountain to rescue Kentarou.

"If it makes you feel better, I've never been skiing either. We are a team that prides itself on our beachside training, after all," Kisarazu Ryou added, zooming away with what could only be described as "natural talent."

Itsuki was left with the only team member that hadn't yet spoken. "Wait… who are you again?" he asked curiously.

"I'm Satoshi," said Shudo Satoshi.

"Oh." As the conversation was finished, they decided to rejoin their teammates.

-

"Nyaa! Look over there, Oishi!" Kikumaru Eiji shouted, pointing to the snow-capped mountain in the distance.

Oishi Shuichirou glanced over to see five red dots making their way down the slopes. "Isn't that a little dangerous? I mean, we could run into turbulence at any time, and if that happened, there could be some sort of avalanche and people could be seriously injured," he fretted.

"Aww, lighten up. They're just having fun… and we should too! There's still plenty to do in this festival-like atmosphere! Come on, we should visit the shrine, and scoop goldfish, and eat at a sushi bar."

"Well, I don't think there are any shrines or goldfish scooping booths around here (and what would you do with a goldfish anyway? You know your mother won't let you have any more pets). I hear that Arai-kun has a tennis game set up somewhere around here, though, and Taka-san's stand is right over there." The two wandered down the sidewalk through the "festival-like atmosphere," as Eiji had correctly described it, watching familiar-looking passersby… pass by. Eventually, they made it to the small room that had been rented to Kawamura Sushi for the day, and upon entering, saw their teammates Tezuka Kunimitsu and Fuji Syuusuke eating sushi at the counter while Kawamura Takashi served up more for the other customers.

Of the three, only Taka had displayed any surprise when the plane had taken off. Fuji had been too busy enjoying a fresh plate of wasabi and salmon rolls to comment, and Tezuka had been sipping green tea too stoically to bother to look up. Taka, on the other hand, had been delivering a new round of drinks to a knot of Yamabuki regulars when the plane had suddenly launched, and, caught off-balance, he had tripped, spilling the sodas all over little Dan Taichi. Pandemonium had ensued when Akutsu Jin had sprung angrily to his friend's defense. Minami Kentarou and Higashikata Masami had attempted unsuccessfully to restrain him, while Dan had asked pragmatically if Taka had any spare clothes and was just getting up to retrieve them when his green headband slipped in front of his eyes and he tripped across the table to land in Muromachi Touji's lap. Akutsu had shifted the focus of his rage from Taka to the goggle-wearing boy, and Sengoku Kiyosumi had taken advantage of the confusion to steal the last crab roll from Akutsu's plate, smirking gleefully at the chaos as he savored the tasty sushi. Fuji and Tezuka hadn't bothered to try and stop the fight. In fact, they hadn't even noticed what was going on. Sometimes Taka worried about his taste in friends.

Now he looked up from his wasabi rolls (Fuji had ordered _more_, and requested with a smile that they be slightly spicier than the last batch) to greet the new customers. "Welcome! Please take a seat and I'll be right with you!"

Eiji rushed in and leapt onto the stool beside Fuji. Oishi followed more slowly and took a seat beside Eiji. Fuji turned to the new arrivals and innocently offered them a piece of his sushi, but they politely declined and ordered something rather more normal. They began discussing the day thus far, and eventually the conversation got around to their destination.

"I think we're going to America! That Atobe guy's probably going to use his connections in Hollywood to get us into a movie, ne, Fujiko?"

"I doubt it. We're heading a little too far south for that. I'd be inclined to guess somewhere in South America. Caracas, perhaps, or Lima."

"That doesn't seem nearly as exciting! What is there to do in one of those places?"

"Well, it should be fine just as long as we make it there safely. You're good at entertaining yourself, Eiji."

"I just hope we don't crash…" Everyone (except for Tezuka who was still staring down into his tea) turned to look at Oishi. "I-I mean… don't you ever worry when you get on a plane that something will go wrong and it'll crash?"

"Nope, never! Nyaa, don't bring something scary like that up all of a sudden, Oishi!" Eiji yelled, shivering a little.

"I haven't ever been on a plane before, so I've never bothered to think about it before… and at the time I was a little occupied with Jin and everyone…" Taka admitted, "but I guess it _is_ a little worrisome."

"I've always wanted to be in a plane crash," Fuji said cheerfully. Everyone turned to stare at him. He continued, "It always seemed like it would be so _interesting_."

"B-But Fuji-san… It would be very dangerous, I'm sure. There might be a lot of casualties…" Taka said hesitantly.

"I'm sure you're right. But of course I would survive, so it probably wouldn't matter all that much."

Oishi felt it was time to change the subject, and rather regretted ever bringing it up in the first place. "Hey, when we were outside earlier, we saw some people skiing down the mountain out there."

"That did sound fun. Maybe I'll take a break for a few minutes and give it a try."

"I don't think that's a very good idea, Taka-san. It could be very hazardous," Fuji commented, placing a hand gently on Taka's shoulder. "You never know what could happen in extreme weather. There could be some sort of avalanche."

"You sound like Oishi, all concerned and over-protective," Eiji said.

"Like Oishi-san, Eiji? I don't think so…" Fuji opened his eyes so wide that the other three were forced to gaze into his piercing blue eyes. "I believe I'm even _more_ concerned than he is. I've also considered the dangers of the pool, the racetrack (which already almost killed poor Tezuka-san and Atobe-san), the dance floor and karaoke center, and even the structural integrity of the sushi bar itself. I have decided that this is the safest spot by far, so I recommend that you stay here for the duration, Taka-san.

"And if you could get me some more of those wasabi rolls, I would appreciate it," he added belatedly, closing his eyes again.

"S-sure…?" Taka said, taking Fuji's empty plate and finding it suddenly necessary to disappear into the back room for some fresh ingredients.

"Ne, Fujiko, you just want to monopolize his cooking, don't you?"

"You know me too well, Eiji. It's true, though I do feel quite safe in here." A slightly uncomfortable silence followed his words.

Eiji spun around restlessly on his stool before turning to look past Fuji at Tezuka, who still hadn't moved. "That must be some, uh, really good tea."

"It is," Fuji smiled in response. "It was recommended specially by Inui. I quite enjoy it myself."

"Oh."

-

Fuji Yuuta and Mizuki Hajime were standing in the center of the previously packed concert hall. "So… what exactly are we doing here, Mizuki-san?" Yuuta asked suspiciously, looking around the dark, deserted area.

Mizuki stepped a little closer and Yuuta backed away. "Why, I merely thought that since it was getting late and neither of us really had anything better to do, we could practice here for a while…" he said smoothly.

"But we didn't bring our equipment with us or anything…"

"True. I'm trying out a new technique of visualization, and I think it will work _fabulously_ for you. Now close your eyes and think of your greatest rival."

"Huh? My brother?"

"If you feel he's the most important rival… If that makes you nervous, you can think of someone more reassuring, like Atsushi-kun."

"Not you?"

"No, of course not me. At this point, you still need a few heroes in your life to be what people like your brother can't: a good role model. Now please stop wasting time, close your eyes, and pucker your lips."

"WHAT?!" Yuuta screeched, quickly escaping by dashing to the other side of the room.

Mizuki sighed, wrapping a lock of hair around a finger. "_That_ was a test. I'm disappointed to see that you have so little trust in me." He held up a small, dark, flat object and, approaching cautiously, handed it to Yuuta. "I merely wished to reward you for your hard work. What did you think was going to happen?"

Yuuta crammed the chocolate cookie into his mouth in an attempt to draw attention away from the blush spreading over his face. "N-nothing! It just confused me the way you said it," he growled.

Mizuki turned delicately away, brushing away the crumbs that Yuuta's outburst had scattered across his favorite violet, rose-patterned shirt. "Mm, you need to practice listening to what people's hearts are telling you, rather than their specific words. If you've finished your snack (and I hope you enjoyed it because you're not getting any more for at least a month), may we continue with our visualization training?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"First, you will need to consider your opponent's stance…" Mizuki described the imaginary scene for Yuuta until the other boy felt as if he was standing right on the tennis court, about to face off against his older brother. "It's his serve first. Are you ready?" he asked, coming to a stop behind Yuuta.

Yuuta nodded almost imperceptibly. Mizuki placed his hands on Yuuta's shoulders and began rubbing them gently. "You know his serve. You've faced it hundreds of times. You're going to hit it right back at him."

"R-right… Mizuki-san, do you have to touch me, though?"

"What are you talking about?" Mizuki whispered into Yuuta's ear. "Of course I do. I'm here to protect you, to help you win the match. That's what this training is about. It's to help with your confidence, and with a player like me to back you up-"

"My brother absolutely _humiliated_ you in your match. He let you get ahead 5 games to love, and then he _dominated_. He completely _owned_ you, just to prove a point. He-"

"Be quiet." Mizuki proceeded to shut Yuuta up in the only way he knew how.

Namely, by shoving another cookie into his face.

-

Marui, on the other hand, had just finished scoffing down all the cookies in the place and had just turned to the pie section when he was slapped upside the head by Sanada Genichiroh.

"Marui! Stop that! You'll gain too much weight, get out of shape, and place a heavier burden on Jackal-kun," Sanada bellowed, raising his hand for a second blow.

A gentle tug on his sleeve stopped him, and Yukimura Seiichi gazed up at him through long, dark lashes. His limpid blue eyes seemed to stare straight into Sanada's soul, so intense was the look he gave him. "I'm sure he understands that what he did was wrong now, and he won't do it again, will you, Marui-kun?" he cooed softly.

"Of course not, Yukimura-buchou!" Marui cheered happily.

"See, Genichiroh-san? Really, I understand that a lesson was needed in this situation, but don't you think that twice is overkill?"

"Y-yes, I apologize, Yukimura-buchou. It won't happen again. I-I will try to act with more restraint next time," Sanada stammered.

Yukimura smiled beatifically and turned to Kirihara Akaya, who was standing beside him. "Thank you, Genichiroh. Now, Akaya-kun, shall we pay a visit to the man behind all of this and compliment him on a job well done?"

"Yes, 'Mura-buchou!" Kirihara exclaimed. That would have been that, but before the Rikkai regulars could leave, Jirou woke up suddenly and blocked their way.

"May I help you?" Yukimura asked politely, using a very dangerous smile that would have made most people want to run away and immediately kill themselves for one reason or another.

Jirou, however, was completely immune. "Yes! You need to not be mean! You shouldn't beat people up just because you think they did something wrong! You shouldn't say once is enough! Never is enough! If you order someone to run laps as punishment, they are able to grow as a person, but beating someone up only makes them weaker. Plus, you hurt Marui-san! And that is unforgivable!" he proclaimed bravely, pointing at Sanada and Yukimura.

Yukimura continued to smile compassionately. "Yes, perhaps that is how you see things… Akutagawa-kun, is it?"

"My friends call me Jirou!" was the happy reply.

"Yes, _Akutagawa-kun_. I'm afraid that you are not a Rikkai Dai student, so I'm not sure you have the authority to judge our ways. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're on our way to talk to your captain…" Yukimura said meaningfully.

Jirou was a very justice-alicious person as well as not very good at picking up on subtle hints, so he stood his ground. "Not until you apologize to Marui-san!"

Marui felt himself unexpectedly touched by the way his slightly cute, slightly creepy stalker was defending him, and let out a quiet "Awwwwwww…"

Sanada glared at him and he quickly shut up. "Akutagawa, do not presume to tell us what we can and can't do…" He advanced menacingly towards the small boy.

"Genichiroh." Sanada stopped dead. "Akutagawa-kun, I will not apologize to Marui-kun, and he himself would be the first to tell you that no apology is required." After a subtle kick from Kirihara, Marui quickly choked out an agreement. "I believe there is nothing more to discuss."

"You've _brainwashed_ him! And regardless of whether it matters to him or not, you're not doing what is right!" Jirou persevered.

Yukimura nodded sadly to Sanada, who prepared to forcibly remove Jirou from their path. Before he could touch Jirou, however, Hiyoshi Wakashi and Taki Haginosuke materialized in front of him.

"I hope you aren't thinking of hurting our senpai," Taki said coolly. "Otherwise, we may have to defend him."

"Well, I certainly don't want to resort to violence… but if you don't see any other solutions, you should remember that you're outnumbered," Yukimura said thoughtfully.

"Not for long," Hiyoshi smirked, looking over to the stand he and Taki had just left. "Oy, if you help us out here, we'll forget you owe us," he called out to the three manning the booth.

Arai Masashi, who suddenly found himself penniless, was sighing, "That'll teach us to set up a tennis game in a group that includes almost every decent middle school tennis player in Japan…" to his friends and fellow non-Regulars Ikeda Masaya and Hayashi Daisuke when his most recent customer called out to him, requesting aid in exchange for negation of the substantial debt they owed him. Naturally, the three rushed out right away.

"Five against four seems like better odds to me," Hiyoshi concluded. (Jirou, exhausted from his passionate argument, had fallen asleep and had been carried over to a nearby couch to get some sleep, or the odds would have been even more to Hyotei's advantage.)

Before the confrontation could continue, a harassed-looking Jackal Kuwahara stumbled up to the rest of the Rikkai group, dragging two Yagyuu Hiroshis along behind him. "I… brought them back," he gasped, panting heavily. He let go of them, and they immediately tried to make a break for it, but Yukimura fixed them with A Stern Glare and they stopped immediately.

The first Yagyuu adjusted his glasses and said, "I apologize for Masaharu's behavior. I only regret that I was not able to stop him." Yagyuu 2 merely pulled the wig and glasses off of Yagyuu 1 to reveal that the latter was really Niou Masaharu.

"I suppose your convenient arrival more than makes up for your lack of restraint, provided you will lend us your services."

As it would happen, Oshitari and Gakuto were passing by at that moment. They were complimenting each other on the _brilliant_ ways that they were able to annoy Atobe, but upon coming to the standoff, they rather thought that a battle would serve to amuse them further.

"Now, this would seem to be a bit unfair. Care to allow us to even out the odds?" Oshitari asked Hiyoshi, who seemed to be in charge of the Hyotei side. Hiyoshi nodded quickly, and Oshitari directed his next remarks to Yukimura. "I suppose we'll be against you now, though I suppose I should warn you... Gakuto bites. Hard."

"I suppose you would know." This comment made Gakuto growl and he launched himself at Yukimura. Sanada blocked him and struck back with a punch that left Gakuto temporarily stunned. Oshitari attempted to kick Sanada's legs out from under him, but was countered by Kirihara, whose eyes were now wide and bloodshot. Hiyoshi rushed in, tackling Kirihara and knocking him to the floor, where they began fighting tooth and nail, leaving Oshitari to help Gakuto against Sanada, who was easily a match for the two. Niou and Yagyuu began beating on Taki while Arai, Hayashi and Ikeda triple-teamed the unfortunate Jackal. Marui felt a little left out since no one went specifically after him (naturally, everyone lashed out at any unsuspecting opponent every chance they got), especially since he was the cause of the whole confrontation. After one look at the full-scale war Hiyoshi and Kirihara were waging against each other, he decided it didn't matter to him that much after all, so he quickly retreated to sit on Jirou's couch and observe.

He was extremely glad he did when Yamabuki joined the fray moments later, led by Akutsu, who immediately went for Sanada, who he saw as the most challenging opponent present. The rest of the team found themselves unwillingly drawn into the fight, except for Dan, who went to sit down out of harm's way with Marui and Jirou, and Sengoku, who decided simply to cheer everybody on. Next to enter the battlefield was the entirety of Higa Chuu, who didn't seem to be on anyone's side in particular, but fought indiscriminately against whichever opponent happened to be in front of them at the moment –including each other. Fudomine and St. Rudolph attempted to stop the fight, but found themselves drawn in; Rokkaku was just thinking it should probably get involved too when a raised voice calling for them to immediately cease and desist caused all the participants to freeze and turn as one to face the speaker.

"I am _ashamed_ of all of you, particularly those of you that are on my team," Tezuka thundered, striding forward angrily. "Might I remind you, we are all _guests_ on this aircraft, and it is an insult to Atobe-san's hospitality to start such a _brawl_ on his property. I don't know what caused this, and I certainly don't care, but all of you need to grow up and act your age. Everyone, 30 laps around the perimeter, and I hope you will all take the opportunity to reflect on what you've done and how _ashamed_ your coaches would be if they were here."

Most everyone took off running quickly (the Seigaku members that had been involved at a full sprint), but Yukimura, miraculously unblemished despite the fact that he had been in the very center of the chaos, stood his ground. "Excuse me, Tezuka-san, but some of us were merely attacked and were trying to defend ourselves. I myself was attacked, but did not strike anyone-"

"I don't care. Go run," Tezuka snapped.

Fuji stepped out from behind Tezuka and smiled at Yukimura. "He had some of that green tea," he said apologetically.

Yukimura smiled back. "If that is the case, then I suppose I can understand his rather rude behavior, and will forgive it accordingly." He summoned the rest of his team and they began running as well. Tezuka sighed heavily, exhausted by standing up to Yukimura, or perhaps just beginning to feel the effects of the Inui-version tea.

"Mada mada dane," Echizen Ryoma smirked, tugging his cap over his eyes smugly.

"Echizen! _40_ laps!"

* * *

Omake:

Tezuka watched the last of the offenders pass out of sight, and was just turning towards the sushi shop (where he planned to ask if Taka had any aspirin that might help his pounding headache) when he noticed a couch sitting in the middle of the road. "Fuji, why is there a couch in the road?" was the first thing he thought to say.

"Saa, I believe that Atobe-san placed these around the plane so that people could rest on them if they so chose, with one of his teammates particularly in mind. Akutagawa Jirou, who I played against in the Kanto tournament, has been diagnosed with narcolepsy, and tends to fall asleep almost anywhere."

"Ah." Upon closer inspection, there was indeed a boy sleeping on the couch… but there were also several others, including one that was running his fingers through… Jirou's? hair. Tezuka stomped over to observe the scene, still feeling rather put out from the earlier events. "Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?"

"Ah, uh, n-nothing!" Marui jerked away from Jirou as if he had been burned, and stared fearfully at Tezuka. "Please don't hit me."

"Why would I hit you?" Tezuka stared, obviously confused. "I don't think that's exactly called for, though I'm not entirely sure Akutagawa-kun appreciates your tender ministrations." Marui flushed, and Fuji smiled encouragingly at him. "However, it is not my purpose to judge that. Judging your earlier conduct, however, is, and _you_ were most definitely part of that earlier fight. And leaving early does not excuse you from running the laps assigned as punishment."

"Oh, um, okay. But, what about Jirou? Does he need to run the laps too…?"

Tezuka scoffed. "Of course not. I believe he merely fell asleep in the wrong place… or rather, you chose the wrong place to have your little melee. As he was completely uninvolved with the situation, there is absolutely no reason he should be punished for it. You, on the other hand…"

"Oh, yeah… It was definitely something like that."

* * *

Xiana: No, there wasn't any foreshadowing at all. Why would you think that?

Please review, friends, and be sure to vote in the poll on my profile too! Today's question is: Do you think there should have been a bread-eating race during the obstacle course?


	2. Peaceful Time

Xiana: Here's chapter 2! This one is really long for some stupid reason, which since there isn't much... plot, per se, is kind of annoying. But! It's still fun! So... yeah. I'm not really satisfied with the chapter title though, but I didn't see any other songs that matched. It is Peaceful Time, sung by the lovely Fuji Syuusuke.

Chapter 1 Poll Results: The question was: Do you think Atobe should have had a bread-eating race during the obstacle course? In a tie for first place, the winners were: "Atobe is far above such commoner games as bread-eating" and "Marui would get the melon bread :D" Thanks to everyone who voted, and after you're finished with the chapter, go vote in the next one, please!

* * *

_Chapter 2: Peaceful Time_

* * *

On approximately the 17th lap (5 for Ryoma, 28 for Arai and co.), Atobe finally decided to announce their destination to the other passengers. "Attention, everyone. We will be arriving in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in just under 7 hours. It is currently 9:17 pm there. Anyone wishing to rest will find lodging in the main building."

One by one, the weary teams finished their laps, if they had participated in the fight, and made their way into the hotel-like structure. Once inside, they found that most every team had been designated their own floor, each of which contained a large bedroom that held a bed for every Regular team member. The second floor was given to the surprisingly numerous females present, the third was reserved for adults, and the Hyotei Regulars were given their own suites on the second-highest floor. Naturally, Atobe got the penthouse.

The Seigaku room was painted royal blue, and the queen-sized beds that lined the walls were white with vivid red sheets. In between each bed was a small table with a golden lamp on it, and at the back of the room a giant oak door led to a bathing facility, which included eight separate shower cubicles, twelve gleaming porcelain toilets, and a Jacuzzi large enough to accommodate eight. Some people rashly called for a pool party, but soon realized that would leave at least one person out. While Tezuka was not the least bit interested in pool parties, Fuji told him that without he just _had_ to be there or things might get out of hand again. Kind Oishi was more than willing to let someone else have his place, but Eiji _insisted_ that it wouldn't be fun at all without him and he just had to come since he was the vice-captain. Ryoma hated pool parties and did not want to go at all, but _everyone_ said that he had to participate. However, they never reached a resolution, so they all put on their comfortable pajamas and got into their respective beds. Fortunately there were enough for all, so no one needed to sleep on the couch (or worse- in someone else's bed!). Since Atobe was the one who had purchased the furniture, it was all of very high quality, and there was a simultaneous sigh as the team sank into the plush mattresses and feathery pillows.

However, the beds weren't so comfortable that they could ignore their Teenage Sleepover Instincts™ and refrain from chatting all night. They didn't bother getting up to play a slumber party game like Truth Or Dare or Spin The Bottle. The former had long ago been ruled out because, after all, they weren't _girls_, and the latter was completely out of the question, since there weren't any girls present and no matter how much respect Taka and Kaidoh had for each other, on or off the courts, neither they nor anyone else wanted to go through _that_ again. (Needless to say, it had been Tomoka's idea.) Without such games to play, they had to entertain themselves with conversation about the events of the day, tennis, and Fuji's personal favorite topic, Tezuka Kunimitsu.

"Ne, Tezuka. When that signpost almost hit you and Atobe earlier today, was he really groping you? Because it looked like that, from the Jumbotron and all, and when you two got back up for your heartwarming walk to the finish line, you both kind of had this expression on your face, like-"

"Fuji. Be quiet. I assure you, nothing of the sort happened."

"All right. I was just curious because you didn't seem to do much of anything after that incident besides sit in the sushi bar and drink green tea," Fuji smiled at Tezuka. "I wanted to make sure that you hadn't been unduly traumatized."

"I'm fine. Thank you for inquiring," Tezuka replied stiffly, then rolled over in bed so that everyone would know that he was very displeased with them all!

"Saa…" Fuji was unaffected by Tezuka's gesture, but decided to change the subject anyway. "Taka-san, will you prepare more of my favorite sushi tomorrow?"

"Y-yes, of course. It's just, we might be running a bit low on wasabi… it's usually not one of our more popular items, so I didn't bring along much, and both you and … Yukimura-san, was it? You both ate a lot today, so there might not be enough for you two tomorrow, so I'll apologize in advance in the event there should be a problem.

"Thank you. I'm surprised Seiichi-kun was able to eat so many, considering how recent his latest operation was. I hope we didn't cause you any trouble."

"On, no, it's no problem." Taka sat up and turned to address the entire room. "Remember, everyone, we're offering free sushi to all Seigaku members, and half-off for all other teams when you accompany them, so be sure to go out and make some new friends!"

"Speaking of food," Momo transitioned smoothly, "I ate a lot today, so I gotta make sure I brush my teeth… I'll be right back…" He winked at Eiji, though no one could tell since it was so dark in the room. There weren't even any nightlights there, which was bad because darkness is scary!

Somehow Eiji picked up the hint (probably from the telepathy they got when they Played Doubles with Three People) and sprung out of bed as well. "Nyaa, I forgot! It's important to brush your teeth so you don't get cavities! Isn't that right, Oishi?"

"Um, yes…?" Oishi was dragged out of bed by Eiji and Momo. "But I already-"

"You probably didn't do a good enough job of flossing. The dentist always gives you a huge lecture about it whenever you go in for a checkup, remember?" Eiji said.

"Yes… I suppose…"

"Then get a move on already! Oy, Echizen… Do you think you might have done a bad job of flossing too?" Momo called hopefully.

"No."

"Awww…" Deciding not to pursue the matter, lest Tezuka become suspicious, Momo conceded defeat and led the way to the bathroom.

"You know Eiji and Momo just want to have a Jacuzzi party, and they dragged Oishi along to give the plan some verisimilitude," Ryoma commented to no-one in particular.

"Indeed. There is only a 3 percent chance that Kikumaru forgot to brush his teeth, especially as it is his favorite hobby. Furthermore, I believe I can say with 99 percent certainty that there is no reason for that last conversation to have progressed in such a fashion unless there was an ulterior motive behind Momoshiro's 'innocent' question." Inui closed his data notebook and carefully placed it under his pillow. "Also, Echizen, I am not entirely convinced that you know the meaning of the word 'verisimilitude,' which is very good data indeed."

"Che, good for you. Tezuka-buchou, will you do something about them?"

Tezuka was still very disappointed in them and so did not say anything for a few seconds. In the other room, the creak of faucets and the loud rush of flowing water became audible. They were very obviously not the sounds of tooth brushing. Eiji and Momo were very excited, if their loud shouts were any indication, and Oishi was worried as usual, trying to convince them that it was a bad idea. Without moving so much as an inch, Tezuka shouted, "Kikumaru, Momoshiro, 20 laps! Oishi, 19½! I told you that you couldn't use the Jacuzzi, and I meant it!"

"He certainly gets angry when he drinks too much green tea, doesn't he?" Taka whispered to Kaidoh.

Momo stuck his head out the door. "Hey, buchou, just to clarify… you meant 20 laps around the Jacuzzi, right?"

"It was originally going to be 20 around the building, but your insubordination gets you 20 laps around the airplane. Get going!"

"Y-yes, buchou…" the three groaned. In the general muttering that followed as they exited the room, Kaidoh whispered back to Taka, "Inui-senpai told me it wasn't green tea at all, but rather his new Midorizu." Which cleared _some _things up.

-

Team Rikkai Dai's room was very similar to Seigaku's, though there were two distinct differences between the two rooms. The first was that their room matched their own school colors, with golden-yellow walls and shockingly black sheets. The second was that, while their bathroom also had a Jacuzzi, the captain had absolutely no problem using it. Kirihara had suggested that they should use it because, after 30 laps around the airplane, their muscles were exhausted and would need to relax, and hot water was good for that, although he was more like Eiji and Momo in that he just wanted to play in the water with his teammates, but since Yukimura went along with it, the rest of the team had little choice to join in the festivities. Not that they minded. Niou had A Plan, and what better place to put a plan into motion than a hot tub? Yagyuu had long since realized that he was bound to be dragged into whatever Niou was planning, and so he decided to go along with it just this once, especially since it was only a plan to mess with little Akaya. Jackal, the resident "Prince of Endurance" (if indeed there was such a prince) knew that Kirihara actually had a point when it came to muscle relaxation. Marui was glad to go along with it if it meant that Sanada would forget, even temporarily, about the "Special Tarundoru Training" he had promised him for indirectly forcing them all to run laps. (This threat had led him to complete the aforementioned laps only half a lap behind Arai, Ikeda, and Hayashi, all without any breaks or sugary goods to boost his normally low endurance. Of course, he had recently consumed most of the dessert section, so that may have helped.) Yanagi hadn't actually been part of the fight, so he hadn't had to run, but he never turned down the opportunity to participate in a team-building exercise, because of the exclusive data it allowed him to gather. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't bring his trusty data notebook into the room, lest it get soaked, but he had an excellent memory. If nothing else, the expression on Sanada's face as he watched Yukimura and Kirihara splash each other playfully was quite worth it, for even if one ignored the data implications, it was still hilarious to watch.

Sanada was not enjoying himself in the least. Unlucky coincidence or devious manipulation on Niou's part had caused him to sit down on a water jet that happened to be shooting hot, frothing water into a rather sensitive area. He couldn't move either, since Yagyuu had himself pressed close to Sanada's right side (again, Niou's fault) and he was unwilling to be like that brat Akaya and invade Yukimura's personal space. So, as usual, he suffered in silence.

Yukimura was enjoying himself very, very much. A relaxing hour in the bath was good for everyone, and Akaya-kun certainly deserved it after defending him from those Hyotei thugs –to say nothing of that Akutsu and the brutes from Higa Chuu- with such dedication. He noticed Sanada's immense discomfort while playing with Akaya, and couldn't help but tease his fukubuchou. "Are you doing all right there, Genichiroh? You look like you're in pain. Were you hurt in that fight?" he asked, poking Sanada's side and watching a crimson flush overtake the other's face.

"No, it's nothing of the sort," Sanada said hastily.

"Well, try to cheer up then. Enjoy yourself for once. It's a vacation, you know…" With these enigmatic words, Yukimura began to engage Sanada in a splashing game like the one he had been enjoying with Kirihara; after a minute's hesitation, Sanada joined in nervously, as if he was afraid that Yukimura would start melting, which was simply preposterous because he wasn't a wicked witch or anything!

Kirihara was a little annoyed. After all, he had been playing with 'Mura-buchou first and then mean fukubuchou had stolen him away! How rude! He decided to attack Marui-senpai instead, and dove on top of him, holding him underwater. Marui began to flail wildly, but was too exhausted to effectively get out from under Kirihara. Niou took the opportunity to sidle over into the newly vacated space. "Hey, know what I heard? They say this Atobe guy is so rich he bought this whole place and installed all this stuff special for the occasion. So we're the first ones ever to use any of this. Pretty crazy, huh?"

"R-really? Why?"

"Che, who knows? He's just showing off, I guess. Anyway, he's pretty famous for some reason, so there's a huge demand for his stuff."

"Really." Kirihara was a little more skeptical this time. "What makes you say that?"

"Only one thing. Fangirls. It might not make any sense, but that guy and his tennis team have the biggest fanclub in… well, all of the Kanto region, really. And you just know everyone at that school has _got_ to be loaded, except for a certain student (and from what I hear he has _different_ interests). Anyway, what I'm proposing is that we make a bit of… a profit off of our adventures here, you see?"

"You mean rip a bunch of stuff off and make money?"

"Akaya-kun, Akaya-kun, that's not it at all. Remember the story of Robin Hood that Yanagi told you? About taking from the rich and giving it to the poor? We're _taking_ from Atobe, who can afford an airplane that has a skiing mountain inside it, for crying out loud, and we're _giving_ to the poor, bereft fangirls that weren't invited to join us here today and possibly gaining a little for ourselves in the process. Wanna help? I'll offer you five percent of the profits from your share."

"Make it 20."

"8."

"12."

"Done. So here's what I'm thinking. I already swiped some of the various 'free samples,' shampoo and soap and what not, but I think we need a bigger heist for the more… discriminating tastes. You see, the other rumor I've heard about this guy is that he goes to every length to ensure the comfort of his guests, meaning that he takes the time to test out every bed special. It's a little creepy, but I figure we can get a premium price for sheets slept in by 'Boku-sama' himself."

"Eww. Where'd you hear that?" Kirihara looked vaguely disturbed.

"That short redhead," Niou lied smoothly. "You heard him too, right, Yagyuu?"

Yagyuu didn't particularly want to be dragged into it, but decided that if he just so happened to incline his head and it just so happened to be misconstrued as agreement, he wouldn't get in trouble with either his partner or Yukimura.

Yanagi, who had been following the exchange while silently memorizing the _excellent_ data he was gathering from Sanada, decided to win himself a few points with Niou and said, "I apologize for listening in, but I believe I can substantiate some of these rumors. According to data I have gathered from several sources, the rumors of Atobe-san's generosity in the furnishings are true, and each room in this building seems to be valued at one million yen or more. While your later statements about his particular methods of ensuring the utmost comfort of those invited seem to be rather odd, the accuracy of your other data confirms at least a certain degree of precision in your general information, as does the source, though I would doubt that Mukahi Gakuto-kun would have such knowledge of Atobe-san."

Kirihara looked confused. "So, uh… Yanagi-senpai, am I supposed to believe him or not?"

"You can believe him," Yanagi said noncommittally. Normally, he wouldn't have bothered helping Niou with one of his schemes, but this trip was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to gather specific kinds of data that couldn't be found anywhere else but a massive aircraft filled with middle-school tennis players, and it was very difficult indeed to gather data when your notebook just so happened to conveniently "go missing."

"See?" Niou smirked. "What I need you to do is _not_ sleep in your bed tonight, so that we won't get busted for false advertising. Otherwise, we'd have to put 'slept in only by Atobe and some Rikkai second-year,' and that might give them the wrong idea."

"Where am I supposed to sleep, then?"

"Who knows? _I_ am sharing with my dear Hiroshi…" (At this, Yagyuu looked up from the foamy water and coughed an "Excuse me, but just when did I agree to this?" cough. Niou responded with an "Actually, you didn't, but you know you're going to give in to me sooner or later so why not make it sooner?" grin before turning back to Kirihara.) "Floor. A couch. Hell, snuggle in with _Sanada_ if you're brave enough. I just want cash. What about you?"

"Yes!" Kirihara immediately began thinking of what he could buy with the 12 percent from rich, lovestruck fangirls: extra time at the tennis club his parents took him to every once in a while, a new racket or some better grip tape, those expensive new shoes. Heck, if he couldn't find anything he _really_ wanted, he could pay off that fine he had received after "accidentally" beating up that kid with the power of tennis!

"All right, then once we're finished in here, you should take all the sheets off and shove 'em in your backpack or something." Niou was in a good mood because of how well his plan was going, so he decided to have a little consideration for others. "Hey, brat, you might want to let Marui up some time. Preferably before he drowns."

Kirihara gasped and quickly released the other boy, who had been underwater the whole time, his struggles growing fainter and fainter until they stopped altogether. Now he floated to the surface slowly, and didn't appear to be breathing. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and gathered around to stare curiously at him.

Eventually, Kirihara broke the silence. "D-did I kill him?" he asked his senpai-tachi, looking worriedly at Yukimura for the answer.

Yukimura checked and quickly found a pulse. "He's just unconscious, I think." In a surprising display of strength, he lifted the boy out of the water and set him gently on the tiled floor. The others watched as he pressed on Marui's stomach to expel the water he had inhaled, and continued to watch as he brought his lips to Marui's to refill his lungs with air. When Marui appeared to be breathing steadily on his own again, Yukimura turned back to them. "I think he'll be fine now, but please refrain from drowning your teammates, Akaya-kun." He noticed that they were all staring at him with rather dumbfounded expressions on their faces, even Yanagi and Sanada. "Hm? Oh, yes, I learned CPR when I was recovering in the hospital this last time. And it was either that or let him die, so…" He caught sight of the large digital clock on the wall behind the Jacuzzi. "My, it's getting late. I think I'll head to bed now, and I would suggest that you do the same." With that, Yukimura grabbed a towel and padded off to the other room.

As one, the rest of Rikkai stood and walked silently into the showers, where they cleaned up quietly until Sanada discovered something. "Excuse me, but exactly _who_ took all the body wash?"

Two shower cubicles over, Niou couldn't quite hold back a snicker.

"What was that, Niou?"

"I said, 'I think Marui did it,' fukubuchou, sir. He collects them, you know."

-

Rokkaku had skipped the Jacuzzi, since they already did a lot of team-building activities by the sea, and went straight to the ghost stories instead.

"…so he did what he never should have done, and opened the door. Inside, he saw only a small room, with a mirror hanging on the wall. He was a very vain man, you will recall, so he couldn't resist taking a quick glance… but as soon as he looked in, his body froze, as if he had been turned to stone… He wasted away in front of that looking glass, slowly and surely, but his image never changed. If anything, it seemed… as if he was growing younger and stronger in the reflection. At last, he had only minutes left to live. Before his very eyes, the mirror became a window… and on the other side was the old witch who had warned him, transformed into a beautiful young woman. She tapped the glass, and they suddenly traded places, to that he was in the real world and he was trapped in her dimension.

"They say he's still here to this day, on the other side of that mirror. On the verge of death, yet… unable to die… Staring at his true reflection…forever…"

The entire group shivered. "That was so creepy, Sae-kun!" Kentarou exclaimed, huddling close to Ryou for comfort. Ryou scooted away from him, but still patted him reassuringly on the shoulder.

Itsuki frowned. "I don't get it. Why did he look in the room? Why did he get trapped? Why did the old woman take his life? Why-"

"So you're saying," David interrupted, "that he had eternity to _reflect_ on his _reflection_?" Before he could even laugh at his pun, Bane leapt up and delivered a swift roundhouse to the head, knocking him over.

"Can I tell the next story?" asked an unfamiliar voice from the darkness. Shakily, Saeki raised the flashlight to point in the direction the voice had come from. The thin beam of light landed on a huddled form that slowly raised its head to reveal the grinning face and glowing white bones of a skeleton. Everyone screamed and there was a massive rush to hide behind Saeki, generally considered the most responsible member of the team.

The "skeleton" picked up the flashlight, which Saeki had accidentally tossed away in his panic, and began aiming it seemingly randomly at the wall. The others were confused, but eventually, the beam caught the light switch and a pale hand reached out to flip it on and reveal that it wasn't a skeleton at all, but rather a boy with black-and-white zebra-striped pajamas. A huge sigh of relief followed this revelation. Saeki, feeling he needed to take control of the situation again, said irritably, "No, you can't tell the next story. Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm _Satoshi_," Satoshi said with equal irritation.

"Oh." The general consensus after that seemed to be that it was time for bed.

"Don't I get to tell my story?" Satoshi whined.

"No!"

-

Team Fudomine was already exhausted from having to run laps. It was one thing to run when it was assigned by Tachibana-buchou, but being given laps by a different captain was a little embarrassing, especially when they had only entered the fray in an attempt to break the fight up. (Really, it was more embarrassing that they had actually run the laps.) The laps had taken quite a long time, especially because the team made a point of running together, unlike Higa Chuu, which had absolutely no discipline whatsoever, and Rikkai, which seemed to have lost a pink-haired player, since he kept dashing past the group with nary a comrade in sight. And while Kamio was very fast indeed, the others were not.

The airplane (at least the enclosed dome) was very, very large… so much so that it was easily two kilometers in circumference. The team was in good shape, but they weren't quite prepared to run 60 km. It seemed everyone else was, though. (Rikkai did it without removing their power wrists.)

Thus, it was very late when they straggled into the building. Their first thought was primarily for rest, so they passed up the appetizing buffet and the selection of refreshing beverages to check into their room instead. They were very excited that everyone was able to receive their own room key, because they had had several bad experiences when Sakurai Masaya had managed to lose their one and only key the night before a big tournament, and lacking lock-picking skills, they were forced to spend an uncomfortable night or two sleeping like hobos on park benches, completely vulnerable to the elements and muggers. It was a bad idea to give Sakurai the key, but he had the perfect puppy dog eyes and kept mentioning how his parents never let him take a room key when they went on vacation together, and Tachibana was a very understanding and kind-hearted person, especially since he had similar experiences.

While the team sympathized with their buchou, as it certainly wasn't fair that An-chan would get a key and he wouldn't, they sympathized more with Ishida Tetsu, who had been robbed by rabid squirrels. There was no comparison, really.

Multiple keys were good. That was not a problem. The problem was with the room itself. It wasn't the beds, because they looked appealing enough to the tired troupe. It wasn't the thick plush carpet that seemed almost as inviting as the beds. It wasn't what they could see of the bathroom either, for though that wasn't their main focus at the moment, they still appreciated the way it sparkled and gleamed. None of that was the problem.

The problem was that all of it was pink.

Ibu Shinji was the first to react. "Well, this is just a little absurd. As if it wasn't enough that we're all exhausted from running more than a marathon, now our room is pink. The beds are pink. The walls are pink. The carpet is pink. The lamps on the wall have pink lampshades, and I don't know how he got the metal to look pink like that. The ceiling is pink, the tile in the bathroom is pink, and I'm sure that if I were to go check, the toilet paper would be pink too. I wonder if this is some sort of joke made to humiliate us because he dislikes Tachibana-buchou or because he looks down on us because we're mostly second years. I suppose he could have been trying to use our school colors for the decorating scheme, but black is one of our colors as well. It wouldn't have been so bad if the walls had maybe a very, very light shade of pink, and it could be very attractive indeed if there was a tiny pink sakura motif in the bottom right corner of the bed, especially if the rest was black. It's perfectly understandable if he didn't want to have the entire thing painted black because then the room would be very dark indeed but I can't help but feel that this is simply ridiculous. At the very least there could have been a black stripe painted horizontally along the wall. That would be nice. Instead it looks like my friend's cousin's little sister's room from when she was five. I am exhausted, probably more tired than anyone else because I had a very extensive workout yesterday and my muscles hadn't completely recovered by the time I started running and I don't exactly have the highest level of endurance even though I am improving every day but even though I am almost ready to faint and regardless of pinkness those beds look pretty inviting I refuse to sleep in this room and I hope Tachibana-buchou doesn't order us to sleep here because either I would have to suffer very very much or I would have to disobey one of his orders," he mumbled. The others watched bemusedly as he stalked off into the bathroom in a seemingly random fashion. He returned shortly after. "It appears that the toilet paper is actually black, which means that Atobe-san was informed of our two primary team colors and simply chose to ignore it in a very rude manner. And why should toilet paper be black anyway? It really makes no sense, because if anything should be pink, it should-"

Mori Tatsunori was a little tired of listening to Shinji, so he proceeded to shut him up in the only way he knew how. Namely, by shoving a cookie he had stolen from the downstairs buffet into his face. "I hate to admit it, but he does have a point. Tachibana-buchou, do we really have to stay here?"

Tachibana sighed, considering the matter. He looked disgustedly at the walls, then wistfully at the cozy beds, then sighed again. "Come on, guys," he said wearily, "I think I saw some comfortable-looking benches around here somewhere…"

-

Formidable though his fashion skills might be, Mizuki was not about to complain about the paint scheme. The cream was a decent color, if a little bland for his tastes (that idiot captain insisted it was _beige_, but Mizuki was clearly an expert, and everything Akazawa Yoshirou said had to be taken with a grain of salt anyway), and the brown, as usual, looked good on absolutely no-one. Mizuki was still working tirelessly to convince the good sisters of St. Rudolph Academy to officially change the school colors, though he refused to compromise on his ideas of what they should be changed to, and the nuns were equally adamant that Jesus would not approve of lilac and burgundy and _heaven forbid_ that men wear _orchid_.

So he was entirely forgiving of Atobe's choices, since the Hyotei captain was clearly going with a theme, if the wide open, bright green Yamabuki room was any indication, and he hadn't been informed of the future design. Atobe also rose in Mizuki's estimation by choosing a shade of brown that was slightly closer to "chestnut" than the usual "mud."

His only worry about the room was that his bed clashed with his silky pajamas. The servant that had (presumably) invaded his room to secretly collect clothes for the long journey of the Atobe-plane had apparently failed to pack the "hideous eyesore pajamas" that Mizuki had stuffed in the very back of his closet, never to see the light of day except for when they were required for the occasional team sleepover. Another point in Atobe's favor: he managed to hire lackeys with a decent sense of style.

Mizuki only wished his teammates had the same fashion sense. Apparently, Kisarazu Atsushi planned to wear nothing but a pair of Spongebob boxers and his trusty red ribbon to bed. Akazawa seemed to think emulating Mizuki himself was the answer. He was far too tanned to pull it off, as Mizuki's outfits only worked on those with fair, porcelain skin. People like himself and Yuuta.

Oh, Yuuta. It was heartbreaking to look at him, considering how beautiful he could have been. The second year was dressed in an outfit nearly identical to the "hideous eyesore pajamas." The thick brown stripe across the front clashed not only with his hair but his innocent eyes. The _beige_ that Akazawa had accidentally and incorrectly chosen while designing the team sleepwear without Mizuki's infinite wisdom and guidance (Rest assured, that one had cost him dearly.) served only to wash out the color in his face, making him almost as unhealthily pale as Rikkai's Yukimura. Yukimura was someone who Mizuki envied for the ability to look good in whatever he was forced to wear, from a simple hospital gown to those _disgusting_ uniforms they had to wear, which quite rivaled St. Rudolph's in terms of sheer unwearability.

But Yuuta was no Yukimura.

Perhaps the entirely most tragic fact of the matter was that it was possibly the most attractive set of pajamas he owned. Mizuki had tried time and time again to get Yuuta to accept the gift of an outfit, but the foolish child had always rejected them, sometimes without even bothering to look at them. On one occasion, Yuuta had been spending the night at Mizuki's house and had forgotten to pack clothes or a toothbrush. Mizuki had generously offered the use of his closet, but Yuuta had flatly refused, stating that he would rather sleep naked. Which was a whole different kettle of fish entirely.

Mizuki decided to stop thinking about it and go to bed. He hadn't enjoyed the laps at all, and just considering his teammates and their horrible taste gave him a headache. The pounding from upstairs was making it into a migraine. He pulled his jasmine-scented facemask over his eyes and went to sleep.

-

The pounding was coming from the full-out rave that was being held in the Yamabuki room. Sure, the doors were open, but the true testament to the sheer magnitude of volume being produced was that Mizuki could still hear it two floors down. The walls weren't thin either; Atobe spared no expense in ensuring that everyone would have privacy. He had enough experience with his own team to know that nobody really wanted to hear what other people, particularly strangers, were getting up to in the middle of the night, especially if any of those people were anything like Oshitari. (Atobe had segregated his cousin, Oshitari Kenya, in a separate room far away from anyone else for that very reason- just in case.)

But what Atobe hadn't counted on was Dan's impressive surround system, which he had managed to sneak in from the concert hall. He had also collected a variety of disks from teammates and other contributors to the noise, and was doing a pretty good job of keeping the music going as the unofficial DJ.

The party had started small, but everyone agreed that it would be pretty lame if there were only nine people there to enjoy the blasting technopop. The only solution, they decided, was to drag up people that were stuck on the bottom floor and let them have a bit of fun as well. The eternally lucky Sengoku had even snuck down to the extremely restricted, girls-only second floor, under the auspices of visiting a sickly sister, and managed to return with three girls on each arm and twenty more following behind. (His plan was almost foiled by Jyosei Shonan's coach, Hanamura Aoi, but when he dropped the pretense and formally invited her to accompany them, implying all the while that he thought the 30-year-old was still in high school, she was more than willing to ignore the other girls going along and join in the festivities.)

Everyone present hadn't been entirely satisfied with the old, old music the adults had insisted on playing at the earlier, official dance, so other than a few slow songs for the players and their significant others, or the girl or boy they had randomly hooked up with for the night, however, a constant blast of pop tunes, rock, and hardcore gangsta' rap was pounding through the speakers and the lower floors.

For those who needed a break from the pulsing beats and blinding strobe lights, Higashikata and Minami had set up a table with refreshing beverages and a smaller area revelers could stumble into to catch their breath before lurching back to the dance floor. They were happy that people seemed to appreciate the service they were providing for them, but they wished they could join everyone in dancing the night away. But they couldn't, because they had to keep cleaning up after everyone and serving drinks and making sure that the hot-but-crazy lady that Sengoku had brought with him didn't try to spike the punch. _Again_. They kept trying to get other people, like Touji or Akutsu or _anybody_ to take over for them, but were unsuccessful. Touji was just too cool, and a brilliant break-dancer besides, to waste his time helping them out; Akutsu was sending death glares at everyone who so much as glanced his way, and, irrelevantly, was dancing with his mother. Everyone else decided that it wasn't their place to interfere, or perhaps they thought that different people were there every time, as neither Minami nor Higashikata was very memorable. Eventually, though, they lucked out and got Kita Ichiuma and Nitobe Inakichi to take over for them.

The party was going very successfully, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Then Wakato Hiroshi decided it would be a good idea to request one of his favorite Songs From America. Then he decided to cut in and ask the prettiest girl in the room to dance with him. The girl: Akutsu's mother. The song: "Stacy's Mom." Wakato: officially screwed.

Fortunately, before things could get out of hand and Wakato's beautiful face could be ruined, the Atobe Squad arrived to break up the party. The squad, made up of butlers, maids, and a few highly-trained assassins, had been deployed following complaints from some of those Catholic school brats. They were whinging that they were tired and wanted to sleep, especially after having to run all those laps. Yamabuki, when confronted with these charges, silently wrote off the "Rudolphians" as spineless pansies. They had had to run as well, and they still had the energy to dance all night! If they really were as tired as they claimed to be, they wouldn't even notice the music because they'd be fast asleep already! And it was just cheap, calling someone rather than having the decency to go upstairs and complain in person.

Regardless, the sound system was confiscated, the other teams and girls were "escorted" back to their own rooms, and the Yamabuki team was told politely but forcefully that it was time for lights out.

"Don't worry," Sengoku told the room. "Tomorrow we can party just as much as we want, and no one can stop us!"

There was a resounding cheer at this, followed by the shrill yell of "Shut up!" from two floors down. The cheer quieted into a sort of sinister chuckle, and the lights went off.

-

Shiraishi stumbled back into the common room. "That was exhausting…" he muttered to no-one in particular, and continued to stumble of to a bed near some of his teammates. Unlike the other rooms, this one didn't have a color scheme to the walls or the beds, other than blank white, and was full of beds with only a little distance between each. The teams represented by the room included Shitenhouji, Higa, and Jyosei Shonan, all of which were apparently deemed unimportant by Atobe, as well as the non-Regulars from Hyotei and other schools. There was quite a lot of diversity –and animosity- in the room.

Shiraishi just wanted to go to sleep. He wanted to be well-rested for Rio in the morning, since he had always wanted to travel to another country, especially one as exotic as Brazil.

Unfortunately, Kite Eishirou and Higa Chuu didn't share his enthusiasm for travel or his dedication to healthy resting habits. As the de facto leaders of the place (it might have been their intimidating presence, but it was probably their dynamic purple outfits), they decided what happened in their room. And what did _not_ happen was sleeping.

"Are you ready for karaoke?" Kite exclaimed, shoving everyone that was in bed onto the floor. "Well, if you're not, you had better be! Starting things off tonight, we have the talented Kai Yuujirou and his version of an old Okinawan folk song!"

Kai got up and bowed to everyone before taking his place in front of the microphone. While he sang along to the simple tune, Kite and other Higa members arranged the rest of the audience in a line, telling them that everyone had to sing at least two songs or else! Shiraishi got stuck singing a duet with some other kid he didn't know, Kajimoto something-or-other. Kajimoto, who turned out to be from Jyosei, was actually a pretty cool kid.

"Hey, see that kid over there?" he asked Shiraishi, pointing to a kid with erratic orange hair and slightly droopy eyes. "That's Wakato, Wakato Hiroshi, and he's _crazy_."

"Huh?" Shiraishi replied intelligently. He understood what Kajimoto was talking about a few seconds later when it was Wakato's turn to sing. Though he was alone, he requested a song with two different parts. The deep male voice at the beginning was easy enough, but right before the second voice, a fluttery soprano, he muttered "Change over" into the microphone and struck a pose with a hand on his hip and another on his face, then launched into the second verse, matching the female idol note for note. Once he was done, the applause was tremendous, with crazy fanboys (who, ostensibly, were fans more of the original singer than Wakato, but were willing to accept him as a substitute for the voluptuous babe) storming the stage and throwing flowers at his feet. After a brief encore, Wakao was able to leave the stage and came over to sit next to Shiraishi and Kajimoto, who had not, in fact, been part of the screaming mob.

"You're crazy," Shiraishi told him. Again, this wasn't a very intelligent statement. He rather regretted it just as soon as he had made it.

"Your mom's crazy," Wakato retorted, which made Shiraishi feel a little less stupid.

"Nice work up there," Kajimoto commented. "Good to know you can still hit the high notes. The fanboys were going crazy this time."

"Yeah, it was even better than at the twins' concert. Especially since they actually realized I was a man."

"I keep telling them they should get their hair cut if they don't want dudes hitting on them, but…"

"Yeah, something about it not being their style, or… You know, I think they actually like attention, and since I take care of all the ladies…"

As the two embarked on a lengthy discussion of their team members, Shiraishi sighed and turned away. He didn't like being ignored, but in this motley bunch, he didn't think he'd be getting much screen time, for sure.

Then, it was his turn to sing, and he reflected that no screen time at all was better than being subjected to this kind of humiliation.

-

In an adjacent, closed-off room, Oshitari Kenya was sitting alone. Even more alone than Shiraishi. Even more alone than anyone ever was, is, or would be. Ever. A karaoke party was going on next door, but for some reason, he had been ostracized.

As the strains of a song he vaguely recognized drifted through the thick walls, he finally hit upon a possible reason for such treatment. It had to be that no-good, sex god cousin of his, Yuushi. That jerk, always running around with his over-exaggerated Osaka accent, getting everyone all confused for when they met a nice guy like Oshitari Kenya, because they always expected him to be exactly the same as him, all exotic and sensual. But he wasn't. He was just a normal junior high student. But the worst part was when he went to the optometrist, and they recommended he get glasses instead of contacts.

Oshitari Kenya decided to stop thinking about his stupid cousin and go to bed instead. "Annoying Yuushi," he mumbled, then drifted off to enjoy a peaceful sleep.

-

Oshitari sneezed suddenly, and Gakuto threw a pillow at him. "Ne, Yuushi, that means someone's talking about you. Who do you think it is?"

"Probably one of those pretty girls from earlier." This time, Gakuto threw a bigger pillow at him. Oshitari responded by sending the pillows back. They both hit Gakuto and he toppled over onto the floor.

"No fair! You hit hard!" he complained, then gathered more ammunition. A massive pillow war broke out, ending only when Atobe, stepping out of his private elevator, got hit directly in the face.

Being an impassive leader, Atobe showed no outward signs of displeasure. Despite this, Gakuto knew he'd be getting extra laps next practice, even though Oshitari had been the one to throw that particular missile. It wasn't quite fair…

"I trust all of you will be getting to bed in short order," Atobe said, "as the next few days are sure to be quite eventful."

"We will, soon," said Taki from across the room. It was partitioned so that each occupant could separate himself from the rest of the group by a system of sliding panels. There was a round common room in the center, with sofas, televisions, and the elevator Atobe had just exited, arranged for maximum functionality. Gakuto was sprawled across one couch, buried in pillows, while Hiyoshi was sitting in an armchair by the fireplace with his reading glasses on, looking at a book that seemed to be something about "Real-Life Alien Abductions." All the others were lounging around in their own rooms, though two of the seven were closed off.

"See to it that you do. Now, where's Jirou…?"

"Him? We put him in that room over there," Oshitari said, pointing to the closed section to the left of his.

"Well, that can't be right… I designed this inner part specifically for him. If he's in there, someone's going to have to stay in here because there aren't enough beds."

"I'll do it!" Gakuto shouted from his pillow fort.

"That won't be necessary," Oshitari said, dragging Gakuto from his shelter and throwing him across the room to the bed next to his. Gakuto flipped around in mid-air, landing comfortably in the center of the bed.

"Naa, you're so mean, Yuushi…"

"You deserve it, Gakuto." To Atobe, Oshitari said, "You don't have to worry about there not being enough rooms for everyone. It's already taken care of."

"…Where are Shishido and Ootori?" Atobe asked suspiciously.

"In there." Oshitari pointed to the other closed-off part to the right of Gakuto's.

"By choice?"

"They didn't complain _that_ much."

"Fine then. Be sure to let them out in the morning. And give a little warning before you do, just in case…"

"Will do. We'll have Hiyoshi do it." They looked over at Hiyoshi, who was still engrossed in his book, and nodded at each other.

-

"Shishido-san, why are we trapped in here? Why would Oshitari-san do such a thing to us?"

"I know exactly why…"

"So?"

"Don't worry about the reason. What matters is that we're stuck in here."

"So… We should probably just get to sleep then, and by the time we get up, they'll let us out for breakfast, right?"

"Probably. Hand me a blanket and a pillow?"

"Why?"

"So I can sleep on the floor. That way you can get the bed."

"I couldn't possibly… No. You're my senpai, so you should get the bed. I'll sleep on the floor."

"No, I will."

"I said I will!"

"…"

"…"

"…Hey. This isn't getting us anywhere. You know, this bed's pretty big, seeing as it's Atobe and all… We might as well just share."

"A-ah, all right…"

"It's not like we're not good enough friends or anything… It's just like if you stay at a hotel and have to share with your brother or something."

"I have a sister, for one. I've never done that before, so…"

"Well, it's… It's not important, okay? That we're sharing the bed. We're just going to do it! Well, I mean, not _do it_, but, what I mean is, er… Nothing's going to happen!"

"Okay, Shishido-san."

"Yeah, it better be okay!"

"It is. I said it was, didn't I?"

"Good. And no middle-of-the-night cuddling, all right?"

"Huh? Why would I do something like that?"

"Just don't!"

"No, really, why? It's not like-"

"Good _night_, Choutarou."

"Good night, Shishido-san."

-

3:15 in the morning. Only four people awake: the pilot; the co-pilot; Eiji, still running his laps; and a shadowy figure down in the engine room. The shadowy figure was tinkering around with some of the exciting valves and knobs on the main power supply line. Which wasn't very smart at all.

After pushing a random sequence of buttons, the person was rewarded only with a small red light flashing. This was very disappointing, and so they decided it was time for bed. As they turned to leave, however, a shrill alarm started. "That's more like it."

Their grin faded as they caught sight of the now-flashing light in the center of the console. "Engines Offline…? Aw, shit."

* * *

Omake:

(Three hours ago)

Kirihara dragged himself off the floor. He really regretted listening to Niou. Sure, maybe there'd be money in it for him later on, but he was the kind of person that lived for the here and now, and right now he was uncomfortable! This left him with just one solution… something he really hadn't wanted to resort to. But he had no choice.

He stumbled over to the bed in question, and tapped its occupant hesitantly. "Hey, um… could I maybe possibly kinda sorta sleep in your bed tonight, fukubuchou?"

Sanada woke up immediately and didn't hesitate before responding with a resounding "No!" He slapped Kirihara and muttered, "Tarundoru. That's what you get for listening to Niou," before falling back asleep.

Kirihara sat on the floor and resisted the urge to cry. Why was everyone so mean to him when all he wanted was a good night's sleep?

"Akaya-kun?"

Kirihara turned around and looked into the gently glowing eyes of his captain. "Y-yes, 'Mura-buchou?"

Yukimura smiled and pulled back the covers on his bed. "You're welcome to come here and rest with me, if you so desire."

"Thank you!" Kirihara exclaimed, and leapt in beside Yukimura, pulling the covers up to his head. "You're the bestest buchou ever," he muttered sleepily.

Before he finally drifted off to sleep, he noticed a certain aura in the room, something like jealousy or outright malice. He decided it wasn't directed at him, and regardless, he wouldn't care if it was. After all, he lived for the here and now… and right now, he was here next to his beloved 'Mura-buchou.

* * *

Xiana: Awww, how sweet! That's so nice! Er, but, it seems some plot snuck in here after all. Which is good! So maybe that was the hook to the book although theoretically that should have been at the end of last chapter or something. Regardless... I hope you all keep reading and that you enjoyed it! And please... don't read anything weird into the omake, unless you really really want to.

Important-ish Note: 60 km is the same as 37.2822 mi. So they ran a long way.

New Poll: Today's question is very simple. Who do you think was the culprit messing with the airplane? There are many answers, and the best part is you get to choose three if you want! I worked really hard on it, so... vote? Please? It's fun!

As always, I'll shamelessly beg for reviews! :D

_Updated 10/16/08_


	3. Crash and Dash

Xiana: This chapter is short, but I really like it. It would have been here faster but the computers at school decided to eat the chapter. Which made me sad and angry and mistrustful of technology. So here it is for reals this time. The chapter title/song is "Crash and Dash," sung by Echizen Ryoma. It's also the name of a one shot by KML that you should all go read :D

Chapter 2 Poll Results: The most suspicious by far was Rikkai, as I had suspected. Tied for second place was Other, which I also suspected, and Shitenhouji team, which I totally didn't. It's because of Oshitari Kenya, isn't it? Well, you can't know who it is yet, because that will hopefully come up in way later chapters, but for now I will just say that you might be on the right track with it.

_

* * *

Chapter 3: Crash and Dash

* * *

_Chaos reigned as sirens shrieked and glowing red lights flashed on and off. Most people were out of bed and on their feet in an instant, but didn't know what to do until Atobe, still in his dressing gown, stumbled over to the loudspeaker panel in his room. He had to shout to be heard over the wailing of the alarms.

"Attention, everyone! This is probably not a drill! At this time I would like to ask everyone to please gather at the stadium. We are putting emergency plan 'Tortuga Roja' into action. Please follow the yellow lights down the stairs and towards your destination. Further instructions will be given at that time." He repeated these directions in English, for the benefit of the Americans present, then in Japanese again, then in Greek because it was his favorite language and it helped him calm down.

Most of the first-floor people were suddenly glad that they hadn't been deemed important enough to get their own room, because they were easily able to get out of the hotel and make their way towards the stadium as quickly as possible. Oshitari Kenya was suddenly thankful for that annoying, no-good, sex god cousin of his, Yuushi, for since he had a room all to himself, there was absolutely no one to get in his way, and in fact he was the first to reach the stadium. Of course, it helped that he was absolutely for sure the fastest middle school tennis player of all time, even faster than Kamio, who after all was only from Fudomine.

Once he arrived, he was told to take his place in the "team space." Since the relay races the day before, the field had been radically redesigned, so that it was divided into several squares painted with the team colors and subdivided with smaller squares for every member of that team. On top of each of these squares was a thick belt with numerous pockets and a blue backpack. The huge Jumbotron that only yesterday had been showing a touching moment between Atobe and Tezuka (literally, if Fuji had been right) was now displaying the same set of instructions over and over again. Step one was to securely strap on the backpack, the second step was to pull on the belt, and the third listed step was to press a button on the floor. When pushed, the button caused a small red light to go off on a smaller screen next to the Jumbotron, and summoned a flight attendant, who quickly explained that the backpack actually contained a parachute and told him how to use it. By the time she was finished, people had begun to pour into the stadium, and the rest of Shitenhouji team quickly took their places by his side. Once they followed the same instructions, the flight attendant and one of her co-workers donned packs of their own and marched the group to a stairwell, where there was a hatch that opened to rushing wind and the bleakness of 3 am. The first attendant led the way, leaping out into the abyss without so much as a second glance; her partner was left to prod the nervous boys and assorted hangers-on to follow her before setting the air lock to re-close mere moments after he jumped out as well.

-

Not everyone had such an easy escape as Oshitari Kenya. For Eiji, who had just finished his final lap and was looking forward to going back to his comfortable bed, it was a nightmare as random person after random person shoved their way past, not noticing him in the confusion. Eventually, they actually knocked him to the ground, as they were pouring forth with such force and pressure that the exhausted Eiji couldn't resist them all. Before he was trampled, though, an arm shot out and grabbed him, pulling him from the path just as a fresh wave of frightened tennis players ran past.

"Oishi!" Eiji said in some relief. "What are you doing here?"

"After I finished my laps, I stayed out here to wait for you, because I was a little worried. But I guess I fell asleep…"

"That doesn't matter! You're definitely in the right place at the right time, 'cuz you sure saved me!" Eiji hugged Oishi quickly before they too joined the throng of people rushing to the stadium.

-

It took all three demons working together to wake poor Marui from the very deep sleep he was enjoying after his awfully stressful day. Yanagi whispered traumatic memories/data in his ear, thinking that would get him to wake up, while Sanada resorted to violence and started slapping him around. But then Yukimura stepped in, and told the mostly-unconscious boy that he'd take him out for ice cream later, and then cake after that, and then buy him some gum, and then he bent really, _really_ close and whispered something that was either threatening or extremely delicious (or both) because it certainly got him out of bed.

However, his meager stamina reserves had been completely depleted to the point where he was immune even to Yukimura, and he kept falling asleep as they tore down the stairs, until Sanada figured it would be easier just to carry him. Thus, Marui woke up again just as the team was preparing to parachute out. That managed to keep him awake just long enough to leap out into the darkness and to pull the cord on his chute. Then he just gave up and floated down in blissful slumber to the dark jungle below.

-

"Why are there alarms? Why are there flashing lights? Why did we have to come to the stadium? Why do we have to put these things on? Why are there so many little pockets on this belt? Why-"

"Quiet!" Saeki snapped. "We're missing someone, aren't we? You need seven for a tennis team."

"We've got seven people!" Kentarou volunteered, pointing to a boy dressed in black and white.

Saeki paused, did a double take, and then paused again. Eventually, he started sheepishly, "I'm sorry, but-"

"Satoshi," Satoshi said, cutting him off.

"Riiiiiight." Saeki wondered if there was any sort of helpful mnemonic device that would help him remember Satoshi, but he couldn't come up with anything because nothing rhymed with Satoshi.

"I know who you are, Satoshi-kun," Ryou said cheerfully in the midst of the tumultuous situation. "I played doubles with you once! Well, I _would_ have played with you if our opponents hadn't had to forfeit… but I still know who you are!"

"_Thank_ you!" Satoshi said to his new best friend. "Parachute buddies?"

"Of course!" Obviously, this left Kentarou without a parachute buddy, so he was a little sad until he decided to join up with Bane and David instead.

"Shoot me now," Bane groaned.

"No, silly, you have to wait until we jump out of the plane before we can 'chute' ourselves!" David explained, and then laughed.

"You idiot… if it weren't for the emergency situations and the stupid alarms giving me a headache, I would-"

"Those alarms are pretty alarming," David said seriously, then laughed again.

"Shut up!"

"Oww!" David rubbed his head. "That was so uncalled for! You should know by now that I only make puns like this when I'm really nervous, and it doesn't get any more nerve-wracking than this…"

"Oh… I see. Sorry, I'm a little nervous too…"

"You've got some nerve…"

"Amane…"

"…You're going to hit me again, aren't you?"

"Oh yeah."

-

"Son of a bitch!"

"Shishido-san…"

"Sorry, Choutarou… but we're locked in this room and alarms are going off and that _bastard _Oshitari… sorry… decided to save his _own_ ass… sorry… without sparing a thought for us!" Shishido continued beating at the door to no avail. "Dammit, somebody help us!"

"Hey, um, isn't there a window back there? With a fire escape?"

"Since when?"

In response, Choutarou pulled back what Shishido had assumed was a famous work of art to reveal a glass pane with a small door set into it. He pulled open the door and began to crawl through, but got stuck. He retreated sadly. "Sorry, Shishido-san, I can't get through, but you go ahead, and I'll-"

"Dammit! No, I'm not leaving you!"

"N-no, it's okay… really. I'll figure something out…"

"Okay… Out of the way!" Choutarou sighed inwardly, for though he wanted Shishido to be saved, even at the expense of his own life, he was kinda sorta hoping that maybe Shishido would be noble and choose to remain with him. "Choutarou, move!"

He quickly backed out of the way as Shishido swung the curtain rod at the window, shattering the glass and creating an opening large enough for the two of them to get through. "Oh. I get it." Shishido hopped up on the windowsill, kicked a few jagged shards out of the way, and grabbed Choutarou's hand, pulling him through.

They took off down the stairs, clattering down flight after flight from the seemingly infinite heights of the room, dragging each other along. The stairs finally ended at a balcony on what they assumed was the second floor, as it was pretty close to the ground. Shishido lifted the rod again and attempted to smash through the window, but this glass was thicker, and he simply bounced off of it.

"What the hell? Why's this room harder to get into than ours!" Shishido peered in through the window, and was greeted with the sight of pinkness, flowers, hearts, and female lingerie. "Ah, I get it. It's either the girls' rooms and they're trying to keep us out, or it's the Saint Rudolph room and they're trying to keep them in."

"We can't get in that way… Think we should just jump off over here? It looks close enough to the ground."

Before Shishido could protest, Choutarou had clambered over the railing and dropped to the ground. He landed with a loud thud. Shishido rushed to the railing. "Choutarou, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Come on, jump down and I'll catch you."

"I don't need you to catch me!" Shishido snapped back, vaulting over and landing even more gracefully than Choutarou had. He grabbed Choutarou's hand again, and they began sprinting for the stadium with the last few stragglers.

They would have made it there in record time if it hadn't been for the girl. She was sitting on the ground halfway off the path, huddled and crying. Shishido ran past, not even noticing her until he felt resistance from Choutarou and stopped. "What-"

"Shishido-san, there's someone here!" Choutarou bent down to the girl's level, letting go of Shishido's hand. "Excuse me, but are you all right? We really need to be getting-"

In a flash, the girl grabbed the arm Choutarou had offered to her. "Help me! Please… I got separated from my sister… and my ankle really hurts…"

Choutarou shot a helpless look at Shishido before turning back to her. "Can you walk okay?"

"I-I don't think so…" the girl sniffled.

Shishido tapped his foot impatiently. "Dammit, Choutarou, we don't have time for this! We have to get out of here right now."

"We can't just leave her here." Choutarou looked at Shishido in shock, while the girl stared crying even harder and clutched tighter to Choutarou's arm.

Shishido clenched his hand into a fist. "I didn't say that. Quit standing around, pick her up, and take her with us. Let's go!"

"Ah! Right!" Choutarou quickly scooped up the girl, who was much smaller than he had originally though, and tossed her unceremoniously over his shoulder. She moaned once, but otherwise remained completely still as they started running again.

Once they finally arrived in the stadium, they searched for familiar faces. "Hey, tell us if you see your sister or anybody you know," Choutarou said, shifting her to a more comfortable, bridal-style hold as Shishido caught sight of Atobe and rushed over, gesturing wildly. She nodded at him and began craning her neck in different directions, searching. Choutarou began looking too, though he didn't know exactly whom he was searching for. Eventually, a thought occurred to him.

"Oh, by the way… My name is Ootori Choutarou and I'm a player for Hyotei Gakuen. The other person who was with us before is my senpai and doubles partner, Shishido Ryou-san."

"You can just call me Kurumi," the girl said, wrapping her arms around Choutarou's neck and gazing adoringly at him. This made him feel quite uncomfortable, but of course he was too polite to let go of her, so he settled for hoping that Shishido would come back and help him out.

Fortunately, Shishido did quickly return, half-dragging Atobe with him. "Come on, quick! Everyone grab one of these parachutes!" He tossed them each a backpack-like item. To Choutarou and Kurumi, he explained, "Something's wrong with the engines and we only have a few minutes left before this airplane crashes into the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. Now this guy here-" he pointed to Atobe, who had finally pulled away from Shishido and was standing to the side, haughtily aloof, "-was figuring to go down with the plane in some kind of noble sacrifice thing. It's not going to happen, okay?"

"I merely thought that it would reassure the others to have an authority figure remaining watchful over the proceedings," Atobe said, "so if you'd quit misinforming Ootori-kun and Kurumi-chan here-"

"You know her?" Choutarou asked, and when Atobe responded that he did, in fact, know all of his guests, if not personally, he gave Kurumi over to him, since he was growing more and more uncomfortable with her presence.

"Wait, wait just a second!" They turned to look at Shishido. "Atobe, you've been watching everyone, right?"

"Yes, of course."

"Is there any way that Jirou could sleep through all this?"

"Not even _Jirou_ could… Goddammit." Atobe deposited Kurumi back in Choutarou's hands and tore off towards the tower. Shishido made to follow him, but Atobe yelled back, "You take them and get out of here. I'm coming, I swear."

"All right… you heard him. Come on!" The three ducked into the passage under the stadium and leapt out into the rapidly approaching forest. After a second or two in free fall, before they reached the top of the trees, they released their parachutes. The parachutes got snagged on the trees and though they could have dropped down to the ground fairly easily, Shishido chose to remain in the canopy and watch the plane's descent while Choutarou dropped Kurumi off at the bottom before climbing back up to sit next to Shishido.

A few last parachutes were deployed before the juggernaut smashed into the trees approximately 60 kilometers away. A deafening crash reverberated through the area, sending birds flying in a panic. As the beautiful tropical birds winged their way past the two, Choutarou reached shyly for Shishido's hand. "Do… do you think… they made it?"

"There's no way." Choutarou looked over sharply and realized, to his surprise, that Shishido was crying softly. "I don't see any way they could have made it out in time. They-" Choutarou interrupted him by leaning over and wrapping him in a tight embrace.

"Hey. It's going to be okay, all right?"

"No, Choutarou. It's not going to be okay. Atobe… he's probably dead. Jirou too. And who knows who else?"

"But we're alive, and for now, that's what matters." When Shishido didn't immediately respond, Choutarou held him tighter. "Come on. The sun's coming up. Let's try and get some rest."

* * *

Omake:

While flying through the air with David and Kentarou, Bane decided that he might have overreacted a little. So he decided to apologize to David for hitting him in the head. After all, it wasn't entirely David's fault that he was in such a bad mood... and he had to admit, the "chute" pun had been pretty good.

"Listen, David," he started, yelling to be heard over the noise of the plane and the rushing air around them, "I'm sorry for hitting you before."

"Don't worry, it's fine," David yelled back. "I should already know that you hate my puns, and at a stressful time like this, I should expect to get clobbered over the head every time I say something like that."

"Well, yeah, it's stressful, but that doesn't really give me the right to-"

"Really, Bane. It's fine." David smiled at him. "Don't _stress_ the subject."

"...As soon as we land, I'm going to kick you."

"Awww..."

* * *

Xiana: Thanks for reading! Sorry it took so long for me to update... I blame life :D Anyway... OMG THE PLANE CRASHED IS EVERYBODY OKAY!?!?!?

Well, I expect it's fine since Silver Pair is all right. (shameless)

Today's Poll Question is: In general, how much do you like OCs? No, not Kurumi... ^^;

Do you see that weird button down there!? Look how weird that thing is! It wasn't always there, was it!? Well, in cases like this, the best way to figure out what it's doing there is to poke it. Go ahead, everybody! :3

_Updated 12/11/08_


	4. Don't Look Back

Xiana: Ahh, an update at a reasonable time. Surprising, for me. This chapter's song is "Don't Look Back," by Aozu (and I think Ryoma has a solo version of it, too!)

Chapter 3 Poll Results: Most people seem to think that OCs, so long as they aren't horrible things that sometimes come out, are okay, while others wondered, aren't there enough characters already in Tenipuri without making up more?

_

* * *

Chapter 4: Don't Look Back

* * *

_

Sanada woke promptly at 6:30 am, and prepared to undertake his usual morning exercises, but was temporarily stymied by the sight of a tapir standing over him and licking his baseball cap. Naturally, his first reaction was to slap it and shout "Tarundoru!" The tapir ran off, bellowing in pain, and Sanada was able to sit up and look around.

His first thought was that he wasn't in Kansas anymore. Then he realized that that was an absurd thought to be having, since he had never been to Kansas in the first place. He got up from the leaf litter and immediately spotted a bright blue parachute waving from a nearby tree, so he decided to investigate.

"Yukimuraaaaaa!" he shouted as he caught sight of blue hair and Rikkai colors, and doubled his pace. He leapt into the tree and climbed to Yukimura's level only to find, to his horror, that Yukimura was curled up around the Seigaku tensai and that lazy-ass Marui. He intended to get rid of Fuji, at the very least, but as he made to shove him off the branch and into the mulch, Fuji's startlingly blue eyes snapped open and Yukimura grabbed his wrist.

"Good morning, Genichiroh-san. What exactly were you doing?" Yukimura said in his usual sweetly threatening manner.

"N-nothing. It's just that there was, ah, a bug on Fuji-san, so I was trying to brush it away," Sanada said, laughing nervously.

"Is that so? Thank you for being so considerate, Sanada-san." Fuji closed his eyes again and Sanada was able to breathe a sigh of relief. While he was happy to be reunited with his captain, he wasn't exactly looking forward to spending time with Fuji, who had similar grace and beauty, but also a certain menacing aura Yukimura lacked.

Careful not to turn his back on Fuji for too long, Sanada looked over at the fourth member of the group, asking, "Has Marui-kun gotten a chance to rest up yet?"

"Well, we found him like this, draped over this branch," Yukimura explained. "Syuusuke and I wrapped him up in the parachute to keep him warm and decided it was safer up here than on the ground. He's been asleep ever since. He'll probably wake up soon, I think." He sat up and smiled gently. "I'm glad you're all right, Genichiroh."

"I'm happy you're fine as well. I was really worried... But, er, what do you suppose happened to the others? We should all be right about the same place..."

"I don't know. I was the first one out, so I didn't see what happened to the rest of you."

"I was second, third if you count Marui. If I remember correctly, Yanagi was immediately behind me." Sanada was struck by a sudden idea. "Here, I'll go take a quick look around the area and see if anyone ended up in the general vicinity."

"Sounds like an excellent plan." Yukimura and Fuji watched Sanada climb down the tree and dash off into the undergrowth, then turned to face each other.

"He... hasn't even considered what could have happened to them, has he?" Fuji finally asked. "That they might not have..."

"Honestly, I don't think it's really sunk in yet. That the plane went down. That a lot of people didn't make it. I mean... we're tennis players. Junior high tennis players. We don't think that things like this are going to happen to us." Yukimura coughed quietly and brushed a few strands of hair out of the sleeping Marui's face. "I think he's probably in shock."

"I think... I think I probably am too," Fuji confessed.

"It's okay. I think we all are."

-

"Nyaa!" Eiji bounded up to Oishi, who was lying on the ground. "Oishi, are you okay?"

Oishi, who had been sleeping, woke as soon as he heard Eiji's distinctive tone. "Eiji! So you're okay as well... I'm so glad! I wasn't sure we'd be able to find each other again..."

"Silly!" Eiji leapt into Oishi's waiting arms, and they hugged each other tightly before Eiji got off so as to allow Oishi to sit up properly. "Of course we were always going to be able to find each other."

"How's that?"

"I've got a super duper Oishi-finding sense," Eiji proclaimed, helping Oishi to his feet, "and it never fails!"

Oishi laughed. "I wish I had some sort of Eiji sense, but-"

"Well, sure you do. You just don't need to use it because you're always lying around napping and I always find you first," Eiji reassured him. "But now that we're together... what do we do?"

"Actually, I haven't thought that far ahead yet," Oishi admitted, "but I guess we should start looking for some of the others. The rest of the team should be around here somewhere."

"All right! Let's go find them!"

"Hey, Eiji... Are you going to be okay? I mean... aren't you tired from yesterday?"

"I'm fine. You know me, I may not have the best stamina, but I recover really quickly!"

"Haha, okay." Oishi looked around the area. "You know, this place seems like it would make a good base, so if we find anyone, we should take them back here. There's a lot of space here, and we can probably sleep in the trees, since they look easy enough to climb. I haven't seen any dangerous animals around either, just birds and insects."

"Sounds like a good idea..." Eiji twisted up his face and concentrated hard on taking in the scenery. Then he grinned. "Okay, I've got this place memorized, and if we leave a trail, we'll be able to find our way back easily. Isn't that right?"

"Right." They shared a high five and walked off into the jungle, making sure to snap a few twigs as they went. They didn't want to get lost, after all!

-

Hiyoshi was lost, though he didn't want to admit it. He had landed just fine, and he wasn't all that tired, so he didn't bother going to sleep or anything. Instead, he just wandered off, leaving his parachute behind. He had conscientiously thought to bring his book, They Came From Space, which was fascinating and dealt with those unfortunate souls who had been kidnapped by extraterrestrials and what had happened to them. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to bring his book light, so he couldn't read until the sun rose, which was very disappointing to him. He had been right in the middle of the most exciting chapter yet, which told the story of Sakata Kaori, a Tokyo native who had been captured by creatures that hailed from a planet in the solar system of Sirius, the dog star. He was right at the part where Kaori realized she was in love with one of the aliens, and he just _had_ to know what happened next. Hiyoshi, a romantic at heart, secretly hoped that the Sirusian would realize his own love for Kaori and rescue her from her abusive husband.

He decided he would climb a tree in hopes of catching the first rays of light, so that he could keep reading just as soon as possible. It was still dark, but he checked his watch (he had switched over to Brazil time when Atobe had announced their destination) and discovered that it was 4:30 in the morning. He figured it would be another half-hour or so until he could read without straining his eyes, so he started looking around for something to snack on while he waited. Eventually, he decided on tree leaves, since he couldn't find any fish in the nearby stream and didn't want to be a fish murderer in the first place, and since he didn't think anything else looked appetizing enough to try.

After his meal, he started climbing trees in search of the tallest one, which he reasoned would be closest to the sun and therefore the first to see the light. This logic was specious at best, but Hiyoshi didn't realize this, and he continued searching until he accidentally found Kirihara instead.

The Rikkai second-year had gotten tangled around a tree branch and was dangling about 6 meters from the ground. The strings of the parachute trapped his arms at his side, so he was unable to free himself. When he caught sight of Hiyoshi, he immediately started swinging back and forth and yelling. "Hey, you! The orange-haired kid I beat up yesterday! Get me down from here!"

Hiyoshi ignored him until he couldn't take the annoying whining anymore. "Oh, be quiet already! My name is Hiyoshi, and I hit you about as hard as you hit me. I have also trained in kobodou for most of my life, so if you think you beat me up, I obviously went too easy on you."

"Sure, it's easy to say that when I'm up here and can't fight back."

"I don't see any reason I should let you down if you're just going to be rude and threaten me."

Kirihara cursed softly and Hiyoshi grinned in triumph. He started wandering around the area, using Kirihara as a landmark, but could not find a tree that was both tall and strong enough to climb, as he had set very high standards. Eventually, Kirihara got bored of swinging back and forth and decided to pass the time bothering Hiyoshi.

"So, why are you trying to climb a tree? Doesn't that seem a little pointless?"

"Not if it gets me to the light faster."

"Whatsa matter? Scared of the dark?"

"How old do you think I am? I just want to finish reading my book."

"So the little baby's already learned how to read. I'm impressed. What is it, Tarou's Pretty Pony?" To be sure, it wasn't his best material, but he had excuses. It was four in the morning and he had just had to evacuate a plane or face imminent demise. Also, the parachute cords were cutting off his circulation and he was starting to feel a little light-headed.

"Um, nooo... I'm reading They Came From Space. It's about people that got abducted by aliens."

Kirihara scoffed. That was better than anything he could have come up with. "Are you telling me you actually believe that kind of thing? Really?"

"There's no way to disprove it, so of course I do," Hiyoshi replied defensively. He didn't need to justify anything to a kid like this!

"Yeah, well, Yukimura-buchou says there's no such thing as aliens, so there's no such thing," Kirihara said triumphantly, as if Yukimura's word was Word of God, which for Kirihara it might have been.

"And why did he say that in the first place?" Before Kirihara could respond, Hiyoshi added, "Was it because of something some doubles-playing senpai said to you?"

"Well, now that you mention it, Niou-senpai did say something about Martians that really bothered me... How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess." Hiyoshi, who had a lot of experience in dealing with Oshitari and Gakuto and their evil ways, shrugged. "And of course there's no such thing as _Martians_. How stupid do you think I am?"

"Very," Kirihara responded honestly.

"Hmph. Everyone knows that the only life that could be on Mars is worthless microscopic bacterial junk. Any _important_ life-forms would have left long ago. No, the true extraterrestrials come from different solar systems, sometimes even different galaxies," Hiyoshi explained, like he was some kind of expert on the subject.

"Oh, I see," Kirihara, who wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, announced. "Buchou must have just meant that Martians don't exist then. I mean, you can't argue with logic like that! You should let me borrow that book after you're finished so that I can learn too."

"Okay!" Hiyoshi was almost immediately appeased, as it was hard to dislike a fellow UFO enthusiast. He climbed up to approximately Kirihara's level and began examining the twisted ropes. "Er, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to untie these..."

"There should be a knife somewhere in that belt they gave us. The lady told us that there were a bunch of emergency supplies, like food and water and fire and stuff in there, so it makes sense that there'd be a knife in there too."

Hiyoshi hadn't been paying attention, because even though it had been an emergency situation at the time, he had still been more concerned with whether or not Kaori's affections would be returned. He began rummaging around, pulling out such items as a compass, bottled water, and a packaged army rations. "Ah, so I didn't have to eat those leaves after all," he realized after discovering the latter.

"What?" Kirihara asked.

"Nothing." Hiyoshi carefully replaced the food and finally pulled out a small but sharp knife. He crawled carefully down the branch closest to Kirihara and started sawing away at the thick ropes. Once Kirihara's right arm was freed, he managed to wriggle around and unhook the rest of his body. After that, it was simple for him to remove the harness... and plummet, screaming, to the ground. He lay unmoving until Hiyoshi got down from the tree and approached his prone form, laughing, and then rolled over and growled at Hiyoshi, showing his evil demonic face. Hiyoshi was so alarmed by this that he fell over as well.

"Mada mada dane," said an amused voice. Ryoma walked into the area, followed by Shinji, who was mumbling to himself.

"You!" Hiyoshi and Kirihara yelled at the same time, then looked at each other questioningly.

"He beat me in the tiebreaker match after the awesome match between Atobe-buchou and Tezuka-san and it was kind of lame."

"He beat me at the junior Senbatsu camp and then I made it on the team instead of him so he got pissed and teamed up with his evil little American buddy to get me beaten up and than took my spot on the team and was some kind of major hero and it was kind of lame."

"Let's be friends, Kirihara-kun."

"Yes, let's."

"Very interesting," Shinji said, "it seems these people are familiar with Echizen-kun as well. It also appears that they've had some very interesting experiences with him in the past, though of course that doesn't really compare to my awful and traumatizing experiences when he took the grip tape that was rightfully mine, because that was the most lame of all."

Hiyoshi and Kirihara looked at each other again.

"Let's not be friends with him, Hiyoshi-kun."

"Yes, let's not."

"Well, that isn't very nice. Don't they realize I'm standing right here and can hear every word they're saying?" Shinji said ironically, and would have continued on in the same vein if Ryoma hadn't stopped him.

"Well, now that you all know how you feel about each other, let's work on carving out a bit of a camp here, hmm?" he drawled, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"In case a rescue team doesn't come right away, I'd rather not starve to death when our rations run out, I'd like to have a place to sleep, and I think some sort of rudimentary bathroom might be for the best."

It was impossible to argue with that logic. Ryoma instructed Shinji to search for the closest stream, and told Kirihara and Hiyoshi to start moving the mulch on the ground into beds the four of them could use. Apparently, he didn't want to wait for them to finish, because he sat down with his back to some protruding tree roots, pulled his cap over his face and went to sleep.

"Why are we taking orders from this guy, again?" Hiyoshi asked Kirihara, who shrugged.

"Hey, if he wants to be in charge, whatever. Let him take the crap when things go horribly, horribly wrong."

"If things get that bad, though, we're probably all screwed."

"He seems to know what he's doing. If we decide later that we don't like it, we can just mutiny later. There's two of us and only one of him."

Ryoma lifted up his hat. "Those beds aren't going to make themselves, you know."

"Y-yes sir..."

-

When the alarms had first started going off, Oshitari and Gakuto had been two of the first to react. They had rushed out and prepared themselves to exit the plane quickly. It helped that Atobe had once taken them all skydiving, as part of some ridiculous sort of "team-building activity." As it wasn't the kind of experience one soon forgets, they already knew what they were doing. As they prepared to dive, they checked in with one of the present attendants, who marked their names off of a giant checklist. There weren't many names checked off when they left, but since they were among the first to don the packs and make their way to the emergency exit, they didn't let it bother them. After landing in a small clearing and disentangling themselves from their parachutes, they found a safe-looking tree and created soft beds of leaf litter at the base of its roots. Despite the adrenaline produced from the excitement, they were already tired from the events of the day before, which hadn't been restful by any means, and fell asleep quickly.

Gakuto woke up and momentarily panicked because he wasn't right beside Oshitari. After crawling out of the shadow of the tree and into the midday sun, and after allowing his eyes to get used to the brightness, he caught sight of his doubles partner, standing at the edge of the clearing with his back to a tree and his head down. Gakuto rushed over right away and threw his arms around Oshitari. "Yuushi! Thank goodness you're here! I was so worried… I don't know what I would have done if-"

He drew back as he realized that Oshitari was weeping. "Yuushi? Yuushi, what is it? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"N-no." There was a note of weakness, of uncertainty in Oshitari's response that Gakuto had never heard before, and that frightened him a little. "I… I…" He took off his glasses and swiped a hand quickly over his eyes. "Dammit, Gakuto, it's all my fault."

"All your fault what?" Gakuto was confused. "Are you trying to tell me you're the one that made it crash?"

"No, it's not-"

"Then what?" Gakuto demanded, shaking Oshitari by the shoulders. "What's wrong with you? You're scaring me!"

"Dammit, Gakuto!" Oshitari shoved Gakuto away from him and put his glasses back over his red-rimmed eyes. "I killed them. I was the one who killed them! I'm a fucking murderer, Gakuto. Can you understand that?"

"No, I don't! Who did you kill?" Gakuto yelled back.

Oshitari pulled Gakuto forward and started yelling even louder, tears falling onto Gakuto's face. "Shishido and Ootori, you dumbass! I was the one who locked them in that room, and I was the one who panicked and got the hell out of there without letting them out. I left them there, trapped in that room, with no idea what was going on, with no idea what was going to happen to them, with no clue that they were going to die trapped in that stupid little bedroom because I thought it would be fully to tease them about how close they are." He laughed, a harsh, strident sound much different from his usual deep purr. "They're sure as hell close now."

_SLAP_. The sound echoed and reverberated through the clearing. Slowly, Gakuto brought his hand down from Oshitari's face. "Yuushi… I'm sorry… Please… Please stop… I'm scared…" Tears of his own were rolling down his face now, tracing paths down his grubby face. "Yuushi, I-"

Oshitari had his hand up to his cheek and was staring at Gakuto as if he couldn't believe he had actually hit him. "You think it's easy? To forget? To pretend they're all right?" he said softly, interrupting Gakuto's stammered apology.

"They could have made it out… Someone else might have let them out, Hiyoshi maybe, or-"

"Only you, me, and Atobe knew. The others weren't paying attention or went to bed early."

"Well, then, Atobe would have let them out. It's his top priority to take care of the team, so he would have made sure we were all safe before…" Gakuto started, but Oshitari was already shaking his head.

"He had other things to worry about, and remember, by the time we got there, he was already down there directing things."

"Okay, maybe they got out a back way or something."

"No! They didn't! They're dead and I'm the one that killed them! Atobe's probably gone now too… Hell, as far as I know, we're the only ones that survived."

"Don't talk like that! More people had to have made it!"

"I'm just being _realistic_ here, Gakuto."

"Yeah, well, I'm trying to stay positive and look on the bright side of things! Is that so wrong?" When Oshitari didn't respond, Gakuto continued. "I'm not going to pretend that no one died back there, that nothing really happened and everyone's perfectly fine! But I'm going to focus on what's happening now, on staying alive and getting help for anyone who was hurt. And you need to-"

This time, Oshitari responded. "You are not going to tell me what I can and can't do," he said coldly.

"Then don't tell me what to do! It's not that hard, I promise! All you have to do is pull your head out of your ass and you'll be just fine!"

"Look who's talking! Now leave me alone!" he yelled, sinking a fist into Gakuto's abdomen. Gakuto choked and stumbled into Oshitari, clutching at his stomach; Oshitari shoved him to the ground and dove on top of him, slamming punch after punch into any bit of unprotected body that he could find until he was exhausted and Gakuto was a bloody, sobbing wreck incapable of movement.

"No… Yuu… shi… please…please…it hurts… Yuushi… please… don't hit me… please…"

Oshitari recovered himself and lifted Gakuto up gently, cradling him in his arms, taking care not to injure him further. He winced at how much damage he had inflicted. "Gakuto… I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean it, I lost my temper… I'm so, so, so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to…" He reached out to brush the tangled, matted red locks out of Gakuto's face, but Gakuto flinched from his touch. His eyes, usually warm and teasing, now reflected nothing but fear and mistrust. Oshitari pulled his hand back, then carried Gakuto back to the tree roots and tried to make him as comfortable as possible.

Then he took off running, to where, he didn't know or care. Anywhere. Anywhere to escape that look of betrayal and the panicked voice shrieking his name over and over again.

* * *

Omake:

Kirihara looked up from the bed he was building and glanced at Hiyoshi, then Shinji, and finally at Ryoma. He spent some time staring at Ryoma, and abruptly stood up. "Wait just a moment," he said. Hiyoshi and Shinji looked up, wondering if he was talking to them, but Ryoma didn't move. "This can't be right. It can't."

He chose not to elaborate, and eventually Hiyoshi got curious enough to ask, "What isn't right?"

"This guy. Look at him!" Kirihara shouted angrily, pointing at Ryoma, who decided to favor Kirihara with eye contact and a self-satisfied smirk. "He thinks he's all great and stuff, but look at all of us that he's beaten! We're all just second years!"

Shinji and Hiyoshi thought this over. And frowned. And stood next to Kirihara.

"Hey, that's right! You _only_ play second years!"

"How come everyone thinks he's so great if he only beats second years, I mean, sure, our team is mostly comprised of second years except of course for Tachibana-buchou and we are fairly talented but it's evident that we still have a lot of room for growth and we will be far more talented as third years than we are now..."

"I bet you couldn't beat a third year even if you tried! So what gives you the right to act like you're the king of this jungle? We should be in charge! We've beaten plenty of third years!"

Ryoma yawned. He brushed a few loose hairs out of his face. After a moment, he relented and stood as well, looking terribly small in comparison to the three angry boys surrounding him.

"You know, it's not really my fault. I'm not the one who chooses what match I play. So you can blame my coach and Tezuka-buchou for that."

"Well, yeah, but still! If they thought you could do it, they'd give you the chance, right?"

"I don't know," Ryoma said thoughtfully. "Buchou's kind of a traditionalist. He doesn't really like the idea of letting me play the top spot. After all, I _am_ only a freshman." He sighed, slightly melodramatically. "Only a freshman... that beat all three of you with relative ease."

"..." Kirihara, Hiyoshi, and Shinji all thought the same thing at the same time. _Damn_.

Though he had thoroughly owned them, Ryoma didn't like that Kirihara thought he could just come out of nowhere and challenge his leadership with an argument like that... and worse, win the other two over to his side. Luckily, he had just the thing to ensure that he wouldn't do it again any time soon.

"Oh, and Kirihara-_senpai_? How many times have _you_ defeated Sanada?"

Kirihara decided it was a good idea to go back to work and not embarrass himself further.

"That's what I thought."

* * *

Xiana: So. The thing about me is that I like to write crack!fic and then I like to write depressing!emo!angst!fic and sometimes they overlap each other with dubious results. But look at the use of dramatic irony up there! Y-yeah! That part was good!

Today's Poll Question is: While we're on the subject of broad questions, how do you feel about yaoi/shonen-ai pairings in Prince of Tennis?

Um... I get the feeling that some people might want to tell me what they thought about that section with Oshitari and Gakuto. So, um... you should do that by leaving a review, please.

_Updated 12/26/08_


	5. Realize

Xiana: Sorry for the slowest update ever -__-;; I couldn't think up an omake for this chapter for about five months. Sorry. I'm really sorry. The title of this chapter comes from Ryoma, and it's called "Realize." It's not really relevant today, however!

Chapter 4 Poll Results: A lot of people don't care so long as it's slash! A couple people have more discerning tastes, however :D

_

* * *

Chapter 5: Realize

* * *

_

"That was certainly an experience," Niou said, dusting himself off. After landing, he'd gone off in search of his partner, whom it turned out had a bit of a problem with heights. Though they looked, they hadn't been immediately able to find any of their other teammates and decided to finish resting and continue searching in the morning.

Yagyuu's glasses glinted in the morning sun as he jumped down from a tree limb to land beside Niou. He still looked slightly green. "It was an experience I do not care to repeat anytime soon, Masaharu."

"Better than dying, though. Should we get back to searching now?"

"We certainly should." The two started off into the forest, snacking on rations as they went. They looked for traces of any human presence, in the form of trampled or destroyed vegetation or the highly visible blue parachutes everyone had used. But no matter where they searched, they found no signs of anyone.

"I would've thought that we'd find someone by now… Akaya-kun was right behind us, and it took you so long to jump that there was a huge line waiting behind us," Niou eventually ventured.

"Hmm. As it recall, it also took a few seconds before you were able to follow me," Yagyuu said, still a little annoyed that Niou was making fun of him for just a little bit of nervousness with heights. After all, he didn't jump out of airplanes on a regular basis, so he had a right to be a little apprehensive.

"It did indeed, unless you would have preferred me to land directly on top of you. That can certainly be arranged next time."

Yagyuu hated when Niou started winning arguments against him. It almost always meant that he was going to have to do something stupid or dangerous. That wasn't exactly the case this time, but it still made him feel bad about himself. He decided the best solution was to just ignore Niou for a while.

Of course, when Niou realized this, he started trying anything he could to get Yagyuu to pay attention to him again, eventually whining "Hiroshiiiiii…" over and over until Yagyuu finally couldn't take it anymore and smacked him upside the head.

"Cut that out. If you keep that up, some jaguar or something is going to think that you're a wounded animal and attack you."

"And you don't think I could take 'em?" Niou grinned. Yagyuu didn't reply, which forced Niou to use his secret weapon. He fumbled around in his backpack for a few seconds before pulling out two objects. "Hey, Hiro', look at what I managed to grab. I was thinking ahead, so I brought a bunch of stuff in my backpack. It has some snacks, and some funny pictures I've been meaning to show you for the _longest_ time now, but best of all, I brought… these!" He tossed one of the objects to Yagyuu, who caught it and automatically began placing it on his head before he realized what it was.

"My 'Haru wig?" Yagyuu asked.

"Yep. And my Hiro' wig." Niou slipped his over his head, giving the impression that the two were twins.

"I've never understood how you're able to fit all that hair of yours under that thing," Yagyuu thought aloud. He stopped and turned to face Niou, crossing his arms over his chest. "Wait… So you're telling me that when those alarms went off, you just jumped out of my bed and grabbed that straight off, before you thought about anything or any_one_ else?"

"Um, yeah, I guess?" Niou said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. He removed his wig and stuffed it back into his backpack, worried because things weren't going exactly as planned and because he had somehow managed to dig himself into an even deeper hole with his partner. "I figured you and everyone else could take care of yourselves, but if we were going to be able to switch around afterward, we needed these… Don't be mad at me, Hiroshi."

"Mad?" Yagyuu snorted. "I think you're a reckless idiot who needs to get his priorities straight, but I'm not mad." He sighed. "Only you, Masaharu..."

Niou smiled to himself. He _knew _Yagyuu couldn't stay mad at him for long. Maybe it was his charming personality? Still, if they were going to be stuck in a jungle together, especially if they didn't find anyone else right away, he wanted to make sure that their relationship had stabilized again. He rummaged in his pack again and pulled out a stick of Yagyuu's favorite strawberry Pocky. "Friends again?"

"Why do you have that with you? You hate strawberry," Yagyuu said suspiciously.

"Because I love you?" Niou said innocently.

"More like you're trying to butter me up," he scoffed, but took the proffered Pocky anyway.

"Yeah, that too." Niou squeezed Yagyuu's shoulder affectionately, and they continued their search for other survivors.

-

"Everyone, don't let your guards down!" Tezuka ordered.

"There was a 100 percent chance that you were going to say that," Inui and Yanagi said in unison, then grinned at each other and wrote something down in their notebooks. Tezuka found it hard to believe that they were that certain about what he was going to say; while it was his favorite line besides "20 laps," he certainly didn't use it _that_ much. He found it entirely too easy to believe that while he had barely had time to grab his glasses before he was running down to the stadium and gathering his team in preparation for their evacuation, these two had taken the time to gather their entire data libraries and bring them with them. Admittedly, they only had three books each, but that was still six books more than Tezuka would have found the time to take along.

They had broken camp and were setting off on a general search for their teammates and whomever else they might stumble across. "Renji, how did you come to be in such proximity to our group rather than to your own team?" Inui inquired, pen hovering over the page as he awaited the response.

"Well, Sadaharu, you and Tezuka-san were among he last to depart from your team and I was one of the first from Rikkai. I was unable to rendezvous with the three that preceded me, much as you were unable to meet up with Fuji-san, who preceded you. I would not be overly apprehensive about this, however, as they are perfectly capable of defending themselves, with the exception of Marui-kun, and as I believe Seiichi made it a priority to watch over him, you should not worry unduly. I estimate an 80 percent chance that Genichiroh, Seiichi, and Marui-kun are together, and an additional 75 percent chance that Fuji-san has joined them."

Yanagi kept talking for a long time after that, but Tezuka stopped paying attention after the first five minutes of so, preferring to focus on where they were headed. Once he was finished, it seemed to be Inui's turn to explain his own conclusions, and while Tezuka tried to listen more carefully to this, since it was more likely that Inui would have some information directly relating to Seigaku, he just could not seem to focus on what he was saying for more than a sentence of two at a time no matter how hard he tried. He supposed it was more due to the exhausting day yesterday that he was having trouble staying awake, but couldn't shake the feeling that Yanagi and Inui didn't realize how incredibly boring they were.

It was a bit of a relief then, when they stopped talking and Inui offered them both a refreshing beverage to quench their thirst. Tezuka wasn't in the habit of accepting drinks from Inui, as that tended to be an unwise decision, but it appeared to be nothing more than a can of Echizen's favorite, Ponta. After opening the lukewarm soda, he took a careful sip and was relieved to find that it was, in fact, Ponta, and not some creepy "Inui Remix" version. It was a little frightening that Yanagi refused the drink, opting instead to pull out a small pitcher from somewhere and pouring frothy, radioactively green liquid into a thermos.

"So you were unable to sample the Midorizu until now?" Inui asked his old friend, preparing to take notes.

"Unfortunately, yes. I hadn't had time to test it, so I was planning on performing the taste test this morning at breakfast. Unexpected complications forced me to abandon that plan, of course, but since I was well aware that you had prepared the drink specially for me, I took it along with me." Yanagi downed half the cup and considered the taste for a moment, rolling it around on his palate like a fine wine before swallowing, gasping happily, and draining it. "I really think you've outdone yourself this time, Sadaharu."

Tezuka shifted slightly away as the two began discussing the ratio of ingredients he had never heard of before and which sounded quite toxic. He was rather relieved that he didn't have to drink any Midorizu, which was ironic in that he had been accidentally consuming it all yesterday.

The discussion of the drink's properties was broken off when crashing sounds came from the distant foliage. Immediately, the three started running towards the source of the commotion, which seemed to be approaching them as well, until a figure barreled around a tree and crashed directly into Tezuka, causing them both to topple over onto the damp, soft earth. Immediately, this person got up and would have kept running if it hadn't been for Inui and Yanagi, who restrained him so that Tezuka was able to see his face and determine that it was Hyotei's Oshitari that had collided with him.

Oshitari briefly attempted to struggle, but quickly fell limp in their grasp. Tezuka got up, brushed off his clothes, and approached the captive. "Why were you running?" he asked, not bothering with pleasantries.

Oshitari straightened and did his best to appear calm and presentable, though his rumpled clothes and tangled hair told a different story. "I don't see how that's any of your business," he said in a passable imitation of his usual, confident drawl.

"It's all of our business as fellows survivors to take care of one of our own," Tezuka said firmly. Inui and Yanagi nodded from where they stood beside Oshitari.

Oshitari took a second to compose himself. He seemed to be wrestling with whether to explain his actions or not. To tempt him into making the right decision, or perhaps just to be cruel, Yanagi held up the pitcher he had gotten from Inui, which still held a respectable amount of Midorizu in it. Oshitari gulped and began to turn a color similar to the juice, which, had they not witnessed it with their own eyes, the other three present would not have thought possible.

It took a second to recover his normal hue, and another before he could get the first few words out, but after he managed that, the whole story came pouring out. "…I lost control, and I hurt Gakuto really badly… and then I couldn't take what I had done. I left him there."

Yanagi had been taking lessons from his fellow Rikkai demon and slapped Oshitari. Oshitari glared at him, but Yanagi said calmly, "I believe that it you truly regret your actions, you would go back to Mukahi-san and take responsibility for what happened."

Oshitari was in no mood to argue, and he already felt guilty enough without an additional lecture. Therefore, he simply nodded and led the way back through the battered underbrush he had emerged from back to the clearing where he had left Gakuto. It took probably twenty minutes to get there, though it would have been shorter if Inui and Yanagi had not been walking very, very slowly, trying to ensure that they got down all the data from the sudden change in the usually sly and sarcastic Oshitari. This frustrated Oshitari so much that he finally broke away from the group, running ahead. Tezuka let him go, figuring he was only concerned about the welfare of his injured teammate and was no longer selfishly fleeing from his mistakes.

When they caught up with him, he was almost in a frenzied panic again, yelling Gakuto's name over and over. But the only signs of the redheaded acrobat were scraps of black and white fabric and a puddle of rapidly drying blood.

-

As it was Atobe's airplane, Hyotei regulars had precedence over anyone else when it came to evacuation. This wasn't the fairest policy, but Atobe felt that since he had spent millions of yen on the trip and had generously invited everyone else along, a little bias in such situations might be forgiven.

Thus it was that, while Seigaku was still midway through evacuating, they were forced to stop to allow Kabaji, the guest of honor, and Taki, who was just tagging along, to get out. Taka was a nice guy, so he was happy to let them go in front of him. There was still plenty of time, after all, and he was one of the last from his team to depart, so he rationalized that they might as well go sooner rather than later. From behind him, Momo immediately started complaining about how unfair that was, and Kaidoh, in a rare moment of agreement with his rival, began hissing quietly. Echizen just muttered "Che" from the back of the line and folded his arms crossly. Taka still couldn't see what all the fuss was over, but could understand that they all probably just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Therefore, he made a point to exit as quickly as possible once the Hyotei players were out of the way.

So it was that he, Taki, and Kabaji formed a miniature group. They initially began looking for others, but it was too dark to see much of anything, and it was all they could do to keep from getting lost themselves. Eventually, they temporarily gave up on that and started moving in the direction the increasingly lower-flying plane was headed. By silent agreement, they had decided that the best thing to do would be to be nearby and help out anyone that hadn't evacuated in time, or at least forage for supplies to use to escape the unfamiliar forest.

As they walked, they munched on some of the tropical fruits that they had picked, fruits that Kabaji assured them were completely safe, as Atobe imported the rare delicacies on many an occasion. The others understood why, as the sweet, spicy, mango-like fruit was like nothing they had ever tasted before. They were so busy eating it that they didn't talk much, although of course they weren't the most talkative bunch to begin with.

Eventually, Taka ventured, "So, you think everyone else made it?"

"Probably most of them," Taki decided after a suitable pause. "Atobe always has a plan, and I can't see him failing… I guess a few people might have gotten lost or confused in all the chaos, but really, I'm sure that most of them were able to make it out okay with the system he had in place."

"Usu," Kabaji said in his usual agreeable way, but his dark eyes, barely visible in the starlight, betrayed his worry for his other friends. They had barely seen Oshitari and Gakuto leaving, Hiyoshi was just a little ways behind them, still putting on his parachute (as he was finding it rather hard to put his book down), and Atobe, when questioned, told them that he was planning on making his exit upon ensuring that the entirety of Hyotei, at least, was safe. But they had no way of knowing what had happened to any of them, or even whether they had made it out safely or not.

For now, though, they redoubled their pace as a thick wall of heat raced past them and the largest explosion they had ever heard echoed sickeningly around them. They simply kept going. All they could do now was hope.

-

The last thing Jirou could remember was a nice dream in which he was playing a match with his most beloved Marui-kun. Then he vaguely recalled someone bursting in the door of his mini-room and leaping on top of him, but after that, nothing. It was just a blur of darkness. He never thought he'd wake up from the darkness that had engulfed him.

But wake he did, and scrambled around under a foreign weight in a panic before realizing happily that it was only Atobe. "Ne, Keigo! What was that just now? And what are you doing falling asleep on me? You have your own bed upstairs, remember?" He wriggled out from under him and shook him gently, eventually rolling him over. "Ne, Keigo, wake… up?" On closer examination, he found that Atobe was lying unnaturally still and that the most likely cause was a deep gash in his forehead. Jirou panicked for a moment, but calmed down upon realizing that he was still alive and was most likely only temporarily unconscious. Jirou sighed in relief and got back in bed, cradling Atobe's head in his lap.

Atobe woke not long after, and his first thought was for Jirou. Once he had ascertained that the other boy, who was just nodding off when he regained consciousness, was safe and completely unharmed, his second concern was for his head. Jirou, satisfied that he was alive, left the bed to find a bathroom, but stopped immediately after opening the door. Heedless of Jirou's weak attempts to keep him from moving too much, Atobe got off the bed and made his way to Jirou's side, leaning heavily on the shorter boy as he gazed over the wreckage of the Hyotei room. Pillows were ripped and strewn about, tables and couches were haphazardly scattered, lying upside down or on their sides, and a support beam had collapsed, spearing through the elevator like a dagger in the back. Atobe reeled at the sight, and Jirou practically had to carry him back to bed.

After a second or two of thought, he climbed in beside him. Atobe didn't bother to protest, as his head really ached and Jirou had always been suspiciously lacking in self-consciousness and probably didn't even realize that there was anything odd about his actions. They lay next to each other silently until Atobe decided he had recovered enough and perhaps he should do something before Jirou fell asleep again. He went over to the window and looked out over the destruction outside, finding that the room was now located on the first floor, right over the lobby –or rather, the wreckage of the lobby and the first fifteen floors. The skiing mountain, made almost entirely of ice so as to be eco-friendly, was already half melted in the morning sun, and the surrounding area was quickly becoming a sinkhole. Twisted wreckage from every part of the plane littered the landscape.

"See if I ever hire that construction company again," Atobe muttered to himself in a vain attempt to make himself feel better.

He decided that the best thing to do was to get out of the building immediately, as there was no guarantee that the already mutilated building wouldn't collapse, and planned to gather as many useful items as possible on the way out. After quickly waking Jirou (really, to think that he could still fall asleep even in the midst of a crisis of this magnitude as if he hadn't a care in the world), they searched the immediate vicinity for supplies, eventually deciding to take the box of matches next to the fireplace, some blankets and a pillow from the bed, and a duffel bag that they put all this into. Jirou also insisted on grabbing a battered table leg that had splintered off an equally unfortunate table, as he claimed it would help if they needed to fight off any wild jungle monsters. Atobe suspected that there weren't any living animals within a five kilometer radius of the crash site, as they would have either fled or been killed upon impact, but he decided to indulge Jirou, as it might come in handy as a lever if they needed to shift some rubble out of their path. They then returned to Jirou's room and exited via the window.

It was slow work climbing down from the wreckage, and it didn't help that Atobe's head injury seemed to be adversely affecting his sense of balance. He had to keep stopping until his vision cleared and his legs stopped shaking. The ever-agile Jirou would wait patiently, but still beat him to the ground by a good five minutes. The wreckage closest to the bottom was particularly unstable and Atobe found himself spending entirely too much time just trying to remain standing. When he finally made it, he collapsed gratefully to the ground. The gash in his forehead had begun to bleed again, and Jirou ripped off a strip of a blanket and wrapped it gently around his head.

They rested there for a long time. The sun rose higher over the clearing. Here and there, a brave bird would start singing, only to quickly stop as it hurried to escape the foreboding crater that had once been fertile rainforest. The silence was comforting to the two boys, who jumped every time a bird started chirping or some of the rubble settled. After some time, it began raining lightly. The cool water felt good on their skin after the scorching sunlight, but Atobe remembered previous trips to the rainforests of Central America, where light, soothing rain had quickly become a downpour. He dragged himself out of the little hollow he had been resting in and managed to gather the strength to pick up Jirou (who was sleeping _again_) and run for the nearest shelter he could find.

The structures had been reduced to piles of rubble everywhere he looked until he paused under the twisted remnants of a blackened tree and caught sight of an unremarkable building made noteworthy only by the fact that it was almost completely intact. The small building looked to have been part of the shopping and dining area that had been set up, though Atobe couldn't even begin to guess which particular establishment had rented out that location. He began walking towards it as the rain began to intensify, which finally managed to wake Jirou. Atobe paused long enough to set him on his feet and then continued to stumble towards his destination, weaving unsteadily through the piles of debris.

"Wai! Look at that building over there, Keigo! Looks freaky, dunnit, rising out of the landscape like the lone survivor of the apocalypse or something! Pretty cool, huh?" Jirou cheered, running at full speed towards it. Atobe ignored him and focused on walking as steadily as possible so that he could get out of the rain. He arrived shortly after Jirou and slammed open the sliding door to find himself in a deserted but somehow still cheerful sushi bar. The large banner in front of the store read "Kawamura Sushi," so Atobe was finally able to recognize it as being run by the Seigaku power player, Takashi. He automatically crossed the room and took a seat on one of the bar stools before realizing that of course there would be no one to take his order. But it was comfortable and inviting, and so Atobe remained sitting there while Jirou flopped unceremoniously on the floor. When Atobe swiveled around and gave him A Look, he shrugged and smiled. "Hey, nobody here to complain, no one but you to mind. And I stopped caring what you thought of me a loooooooong time ago."

"Fair enough," Atobe said, leaning his head back against the cool counter. On closer inspection, it turned out that the room had not remained entirely intact, as there were several small holes in the roof and one window was shattered, but it was still in better condition than everything else they had seen thus far.

"Heeeey… Ne, Keigo, we're in a sushi bar, right? So 'zat mean we can eat somethin' here?" Jirou got up without waiting for an answer and, after a running start, dove over Atobe's head and onto the other side of the counter.

"I don't know… Since the electricity's out, the fish might have gone rotten, and sushi is a chancy business anyway, if it's not properly prepared…"

Undeterred, Jirou said, "Then let's build a fire and cook the fishies! I'm sure they can't all be bad yet."

"Where are we going to make a fire? In case you've forgotten, it's raining and-"

"Aha!" Using his stick-weapon, Jioru pried up some boards that were sticking up from the floor. "Tada! One fire pit, and dry firewood as well!" Scraping up the top layer of mulch revealed pure soil and provided kindling. Atobe got up, hopped the counter slightly less gracefully than Jirou had, and tossed him the book of matches.

"See if you can get it started, but if it's not working, just wait for me and I'll do it for you," he commanded, ducking into the back room.

"Where are you going?" Jirou asked innocently.

"Well, it's not like I trust you to know good-quality fish. I daresay you slept through any tours of _your_ father's fish farms," Atobe said dryly. He opened the industrial-sized freezer and was greeted by the cheerful sight of dead fish floating in water, though he was relieved to find that the water was still cold, at least. He pulled the upper-most fish out into the light and discovered that it was a tuna, and more to the point, that it was already spoiled. Fortunately, the next fish, a salmon, was in better condition.

"Behold! I have created fire! I am Maaaaaaan!" Jirou yelled excitedly from the other room.

"That's great, Man. Want to come in here and help me clean out this fish?" Jirou came obediently, but yelped at the sight of the fish in Atobe's hands and the rejected corpse of the one Atobe had disdainfully tossed to the ground.

"Eek, creepy. I don't know, I can't cut up any fishes that still have their heads on," he said, skittering back into the other room. Atobe sighed and grabbed the nearest pair of gloves.

"Why oh why must I be lowered to such common endeavors?" he pondered aloud, taking the largest and sharpest knife he could find off the rack and bringing it down heavily on the fish's head. It took three tries to get it all the way off, but when he was done, he threw the salmon head and the tuna into the nearby garbage bin and called Jirou back. Jirou set to happily slicing and gutting the fish –he even knew which knife to use for each task. Atobe left him to it and began sorting through the rest of the fish in the freezer. Of these, he determined that almost half were still edible. He dumped the rest in the garbage and tried to figure out how to keep the rest in fair condition until it came time to eat them.

"Heyyy, I've got an idea!" Jirou said when Atobe asked for advice on the subject. "If the rain's calmed down a little, you could go on a quest to the ex-skiing mountain and bring some ice back for the other fishies." He continued to attack the salmon, and having already disposed of its innards, was removing bones and slicing the meat up. "You can leave this to me and once I've got it all ship-shape, I'll cook him up. It'll be delicious!"

"I suppose I'd be willing to leave it to you, if you're that confident in your cooking skills," Atobe responded.

"Yup, more confident in my skills than I am in yours, Mr. Puts Toast In The Microwave."

"Che." Atobe decided not to say anything more about that particular incident, lest it lead to more undeserved ridicule. He exited the sushi shop and was relieved to find that the rain had mostly stopped, though ominous dark clouds still hung over the clearing. Lightning flashed in the distance, and the thunder wasn't far behind.

Atobe shivered involuntarily and looked for the nearest manageable chunk of ice, so that he could quickly recover it before the storm intensified. As he grabbed a solid slice, bending down to gather it into his arms, the area was suddenly lit by a blinding white light and his ears were assaulted by a horrific crashing, louder than anything he had ever heard. It continued for an eternally long five seconds.

Atobe was left momentarily deaf and temporarily frightened that the lightning had struck him, but the shrieking clash of metal on metal allayed both of these fears. It had instead hit the remnants of the "hotel" which even in its destroyed state was the tallest thing in the area. The strain of a second trauma was too much for the ruined structure, and it began collapsing in on itself. Atobe watched blankly as it fell into a heap of worthless scrap metal and bad memories. He was torn between wanting to say "Good riddance" and wanting to burst into tears.

He did neither when he noticed something on the ground. Automatically dropping the ice, he approached slowly, but upon realizing it was what he thought it was, he dropped all pretense and raced towards his personal bag, ignoring the wave of pain that resonated in his head from such exertion. Somehow the building's collapse had ejected this precious item perfectly so that it was directly in front of him. He would have muttered a quick prayer of thanks if he was convinced that a god besides Ore-sama existed, but since he wasn't, he merely smirked and grabbed the one thing that could save them all.

His swift return surprised Jirou, who nearly dropped the fish into the fire. "Where's the ice?" he started to ask, but Atobe interrupted, not even noticing in his excitement.

"Jirou, Jirou, look what I found! My bag!" He briefly performed a short celebratory dance and then presented the Hyotei-logo bag to him.

"That's really nice," Jirou said without much enthusiasm. He didn't take the bag, instead rotating the fish so that it would cook evenly.

"Yes, it is," Atobe said importantly. "I happen to carry at least 5 phones with me at all times, and one of them is the new satellite phone, able to connect _to_ anywhere _from_ anywhere, thanks to an orbiting satellite. It's expensive, of course, but fortunately I thought to bring one of mine along for the trip."

"Really? That's wonderful, then!" Jirou exclaimed, handing a portion of the roasted salmon, ignominiously impaled on a scrap of floorboard, to Atobe, who accepted it gratefully and started eating voraciously. He noticed how exhausted Jirou looked and set his fish down on the counter. In a rare touchy-feely moment, Atobe hugged Jirou tightly. "Thank you for cooking. Let me set up the blankets and things for you. I'll watch the fire while you get some sleep."

"…Thanks, Keigo," Jirou whispered, entwining his arms around Atobe's neck and dangling there like an over-sized and very unfashionable necklace. Atobe did his best to ignore him while he made up a rough bed on the other side of the counter. Once he was finished, he lowered Jirou into it, peeling his hands off of his neck and tucking him under the covers.

"Well, uh… have a good rest, I guess," Atobe said slightly awkwardly. A sleepy groan was the only response he got, and he saw that, as per the usual, Jirou was fast asleep.

He quickly got up and retrieved his bag, opening it and shaking the contents out onto a cutting board. Out of habit, he checked his other phones first for messages or missed calls. After checking to see that there was, in fact, no reception on any of them (apparently, phone companies hadn't yet exploited the untapped market consisting of the aboriginal peoples of the Amazon), he carefully turned them each off and returned them to the bag.

Finally he picked up the satellite phone and hit a number on the speed dial, which corresponded with his father's emergency line. He took a deep breath, ready to hear his father's voice, ready to save everyone… and was rewarded by an automated female voice.

"The number you have tried to connect to is currently in use. Please hang up and dial again."

"Damn," he muttered, and set the phone down, turning it off as well so as not to drain the battery. He briefly wondered what could be so important that it would have his father on the phone this early in the morning, but didn't spare it much thought, as he still needed to bring in the ice.

-

Atobe Shigeru was awakened at 4:27 a.m. by a call to his emergency line. "Yes? This had better be important," he growled into the phone.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. It's just that we've stopped receiving signals from the aircraft your son took… and we've also received reports that an airplane has recently crash-landed into the Pacific off the coast of Peru. They… think it's his plane, sir."

Shigeru swore under his breath.

* * *

Omake:

"Forty percent chance Oshitari got lost."

"Ten percent he ran off again."

"Forty-five percent he memorized the way back despite being in such a panic."

"Four percent he secretly hated his partner all along and was using this as an excuse."

"...I would say less than three percent, given his appearance when we first encountered him."

"But it could very easily be an act, considering the person in question, and since the two left together, people would get suspicious if Oshitari reappeared without mentioning anything about Mukahi."

"That is true, but I found the emotional response he displayed at that time so convincing that anything more than three percent is simply illo-"

"Inui. Yanagi. Please hurry up. The situation is quite serious."

"Yes, Tezuka."

"..."

"..."

"...Eighty percent chance Tezuka stopped listening to us twenty minutes ago."

"I believe we can confirm that."

"Then please do so."

"Fifty-eight percent chance Tezuka and Oshitari plotted together to kill Mukahi because they were secret lovers and Mukahi was blackmailing them."

"..."

"..."

"...One hundred percent chance Tezuka stopped listening to us," Inui and Yanagi concluded together.

* * *

Xiana: Omake, grrr. Luckily, I know exactly what I'm going to write for the next chapter's omake, so the next one should be up much sooner than this one was. Sorry again! I really don't mean to let this story die, and in fact I'm still writing it on a semi-regular basis (I was just writing chapter 13 yesterday) so there is really no excuse other than I am bad at coming up with omake for this chapter. It just... wasn't that funny :o

Today's Poll Question is: What type of Tenipuri story do you prefer to read? If you are like me and prefer post-apocalyptic type stories in which dazed and confused tennis players wander around Tokyo desperately trying to survive... please click the "Other" option :)

Please review, even if it's just to yell at me about being a slow updater. If I forgot to respond to anybody's review, please let me know and I will do that right away!


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